Ben 10: Rooters Before Branches
by Ashley Is My Pen Name
Summary: Gwendolyn and Kevin have just tied the knot when they hear the news of a massive breakout in the Null Void. Then, people start disappearing. There's also that creepy proctor, Servantis, who seems to be a little obsessed with both of them. What does he want, and what does it all mean for the Tennyson family? Set in an alternate future, rated MA for explicit content.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note / Disclaimer:**

 **Hi all, Ashley here. Long-time lurker, first-time published. This fiction is set in an alternate future within my own fanon. As such, some elements of this story do not follow the canon story line. Ben 10, its franchise, and characters are the combined property of Man of Action and Cartoon Network. Some of the characters do not have first names or last names in the show, so I took the liberty to provide them with some for the sake of story flow. This story also contain several OCs, all of whom belong to me. Any similarities with other fan fiction on this website or others is unintentional, although I have to say I am quite inspired by the works of RenkonNairu and The Otaku with Hazel Eyes (kudos for excellent writing, good grammar, and having the characters stay in character!). Lastly, this story contains explicit language, graphic sex, and violent themes. If you are under 18 or do not consider yourself a mature audience, please press the "back" button and choose a different story. Thanks.  
**

 **With that being said, I hope you enjoy my work.  
**

* * *

 **Chapter 1**

 **The Wedding**

"This is getting really old!" Gwendolyn Tennyson shouted, as she soared through the air, placing one mana barrier after another in front of the rampant part-octopus-part-crab creature that had been wreaking havoc through the city. The creature didn't seem particularly sentient, guided mostly by fear and a fight-or-flight response, but it had an overwhelming amount of power and it had no intention to stop anytime soon. Gwendolyn never liked using her powers for brute force, but after countless unsuccessful attempts to rein in the creature, and the ever-increasing trail of destruction it had left behind, she was changing her mind about it. "Kevin, stand back!" She ordered at the pale, long-haired man on the ground, running alongside the creature.

Kevin Levin grumbled to himself, but obeyed. The creature had paid less attention to his punches than he would have mosquito bites; it almost broke his heart. He watched Gwendolyn's figure lit up in a magenta glow, a few shades darker than the mana—life energy—she exuded. The glow transferred from her body toward the creature, trapping it in its spot and drawing enough of the creature's own mana to knock it out cold. As the now-unconscious creature flipped onto its back, Gwendolyn dropped herself next to Kevin and gave him a nod.

He whipped out his badge-slash-communicator and spoke into it. "Agents Levin and Tennyson reporting to officers on duty, unknown creature wreaking havoc in downtown Bellwood has been subdued and ready for transport," He gave their coordinates and ended communication. Glancing at the large digital time display on one of the building nearby, he winced. "We are so late for our own wedding."

Gwendolyn sighed. "I should have listened to you, civil registration at the town hall would have been so much easier."

"Now I know we're in trouble. You're actually agreeing with me." He smiled and took her hand. They were meant to be walking down the aisle in less than twenty minutes. "Come on, better get going."

As if on cue, two large futuristic motorcycles, one green and one red, skidded to a stop in front of them. The rider on the red bike lifted her visor, revealing a pair of chocolate-brown eyes. "Hop on, you two. Aunt Natalie is going berserk." Kai Green commanded. She dug a spare helmet from the storage under the backseat and tossed it at Gwendolyn.

Gwendolyn let out a grateful sigh and hopped on to the red bike, wrapping her arms around the Navajo girl's waist. Likewise, Kevin hopped on to the back of the green bike—Ben Tennyson's—spare helmet be damned. They sped off into a time-space loop and arrived at the lakeside mansion Gwendolyn's parents had hired for the event in thirty seconds, instead of thirty minutes as it normally would. The beauty of alien technology!

Natalie, Gwendolyn's mother, was standing at the entrance, dressed to the nines in a formal dark blue dress, clutching at her pearls with worry. She nearly fainted at the sight of her daughter, the bride-to-be, in her disheveled post-combat form. "Where have you been?" She shrieked. "Look at you! We have less than fifteen minutes! Oh—"

"Don't worry, Lili, we'll take care of them." Max Tennyson suddenly appeared, looking quite dapper in a sleek grey suit that matched his eyes. He placed his robotic arm on Kevin's shoulder, unceremoniously dragging the twenty-six-year-old man toward the locker room by the pool, designated as the groom's dressing room for the day, with Ben trailing behind them. Kai grinned at her fiancé's aunt and headed into the mansion with Gwendolyn in tow.

"Thank you," Gwendolyn gave Kai a sincere smile as they raced up the stairs, toward the suite reserved as the bridal quarters.

"No problem," Kai replied. "Now you better do me some favors on _my_ wedding day." She grinned.

Gwendolyn chuckled. "You know I would anyway!" The girls had not get along well the first time they met—they each thought the other was full of herself, and each disliked the other's influence on Ben. However, the three had once again crossed paths when they discovered that Kai was also a student at the college Gwendolyn attended. Their maturity had guided them toward a mutual understanding, and so their friendship bloomed. Not without its challenges, for both women were stubborn, strong, and had their own little rivalries when it came to both academic excellence and heroic deeds, but they knew they could trust each other.

The women's smiles faltered as soon as they entered the suite. Pairs of hands and choruses of high-pitched voices attacked the two, shoving and prodding them—especially Gwendolyn—in various directions.

"Where have you been?"

"Late for your own wedding, imagine that!"

"Your mom's driving everyone crazy!"

"Anyone who's _not_ a bridesmaid, get the hell out!" Kai yelled. The room came to a halt, and several females she did not recognize, presumably from Gwendolyn's mother's side of the family, slowly backed toward the door and exited. That left herself, Emily Youngberg, Gwendolyn's best friend since childhood, Julie Yamamoto, with whom the gang was still friends after she went on to become a professional tennis player and got a new boyfriend, and Lucy Mann, Gwendolyn's Lenopan cousin-in-law (Lucy's aunt married Ben and Gwendolyn's uncle).

Gwendolyn held her hands up. With a flash of pink, she was transformed. The messy ponytail she had been sporting was now clean and hanging down below her shoulders in soft curls. The sweat, grime, and blood that decorated her skin was gone, replaced by a sweet-smelling scent. Her clothes were now also clean and neatly folded on the bed, leaving her naked. "Where's my dress?" She asked. With the amount of time they had spent at the tailor's studio getting their dresses fitted, the girls were no longer shy about being nude around each other.

"Here," Julie held it up to her. As soon as Gwendolyn slinked herself into the white mermaid dress, Julie sat her down and began working on her makeup, while Emily came at her with a curling iron. In the meantime, Lucy helped Kai into her bridesmaid's dress, a knee-length pouf dress just like the one she had on, but in a different shade. To compliment the lilacs and the yellow roses Gwendolyn had picked out for decoration, each girl got to wear a unique shade of purple—Emily's was a pale lavender, Julie's was a sweet mauve, Lucy's was electric violet, and Kai's was a deep violet—while carrying a bouquet of yellow roses, which turned out to be rather cute. It could have been much worse.

"Lucy, would you mind checking up on the boys?" Gwendolyn asked, face contorted as Julie applied mascara to her lashes.

"Sure thing, Cuz!" Lucy replied, cheerfully, and bounced her way out of the room.

Gwen exhaled, looking at her reflection in the mirror. Oh, what a day. Gwendolyn had never imagined that this was how it would have gone; sure, she dreamed of weddings and dresses and flowers as a little girl, but those dreams had slowly disappeared as she grew up. She and Kevin had been in a relationship for a good chunk of the last ten years, minus the several months he had spent as Ultimate Kevin—the second time he absorbed Ben's Omnitrix, when he was seventeen. They had moved in together during Gwendolyn's second year at college, much to her mother's dismay. Originally, they were living separately—Gwendolyn stayed at the dorms while Kevin rented the small apartment on top of the garage where he found work. There were mentions of marriage and kids, occasionally, but they were mostly done in jest. They didn't need to utter vows in a roomful of people to prove their commitment to one another, or to sign some papers. It wasn't until Natalie invited the two out for dinner on the eve of Gwendolyn's twenty-fourth birthday and essentially threatened Kevin to either propose, or the two would one day walk into their own surprise wedding, that it became a real possibility.

And today, that possibility was becoming a reality.

Gwendolyn wasn't unhappy, of course. On the contrary, she was a little giddy about the whole thing. As much as she hated to admit it, she was quite a romantic. Gwendolyn Catherine Tennyson, soon to be Gwendolyn Catherine Tennyson-Levin, finally a bride!

"Thanks Julie, my makeup looks amazing," She said, admiring the half-Japanese girl's handiwork. Julie beamed proudly at her comment. "And thanks to you, too, Emily, I would have burned my ear off or something if I tried to do that myself."

Emily giggled. "You're way too modest, but I'll accept the compliment." She ran her fingers gently through Gwendolyn's flaming red hair. "Just one last bit and we're good to go."

"I'll get your shoes on," Kai chimed in, fetching the pair of pearly-white pumps from its box and fitting them onto Gwendolyn's feet.

"Gwenny! Aunt Natalie wants to know how much longer you need, because apparently, you're already two minutes behind schedule!" Lucy's blonde head poked out of the doorway, her singsong voice barely masking her frustrations.

"Coming!" Gwendolyn replied, placing the lilac wreath carefully on top of her head before standing up and marching out the door as gracefully as she could manage, followed by the other girls. Collectively, but silently, they thanked the owner of the mansion for installing an elevator, because as romantic as descending a spiral staircase in one's wedding gown may sound, it was rather impractical.

The elevator took her directly to the grand ballroom, where both the ceremony and the reception was to be held. "Oh, Sweetie, you look fantastic." Her mother had been waiting by the elevator with her bouquet. She handed it to Gwen and pulled up the bridesmaids to line up next to the altar. At Gwen's insistence that "having a male family member 'give away' the bride to the groom is anti-feminist," it became Emily's job to trail by Gwen's side on her motorized wheelchair as they walked down the aisle.

It felt like it was a thousand miles long. When she arrived in front of the officiator - none other than her own Grandpa Max - it felt like a whole lifetime was over. She had fought battles in front of international camera crews and given speeches in front of galactic leaders, but she felt all the eyes in the room on her and she couldn't help but feel a little nervous. Kevin was visibly nervous, too—standing frozen by her grandfather, obsidian eyes fixated on her figure. He looked irresistibly handsome in a black tuxedo, his long jet-black hair tied back in a sleek ponytail. She flashed a smile at him and he grimaced in return. Her cousin, standing a few feet behind Kevin, caught this exchange and gave a mischievous grin. Gwendolyn decided to ignore him.

Grandpa Max began his speech. It was nondenominational, direct, and concise - something her mother would no doubt bring up with her later—but it did the job. They exchanged rings and "I dos" and kissed. They didn't prepare for custom vows—didn't feel the need to exchange empty words over a lifetime of action. The crowd cheered, the song played, and they headed out to the floor for their dance. He was a little tense, but he was doing well otherwise.

"Relax," She whispered. "It's done. We're married."

Kevin looked as if somebody had slapped him. "Did I—did I do alright? Did I say anything wrong?"

"You did great, Kevin. Plus, nobody cares about the groom—weddings are all about the bride." Gwendolyn snickered. "I love you."

"I… love you too." He was suddenly awestruck by how beautiful she was. She had always been pretty; it was hard not to notice that about Gwendolyn, even when they were just kids. There was something about the lighting that made her green eyes sparkle more than usual, and whatever that shade of lipstick was called, it made him want to give her an obscenely intimate kiss right there, in front of all the guests.

The song changed and Kevin felt a tap on his shoulder. "Mind if I cut in?" Ben asked, the same mischievous grin as the one Gwendolyn saw before plastered over his face.

"Actually, yeah, kinda, but go ahead." Kevin grinned back and turned around, only to bump into Kai, who offered him a hand. He wasn't used to dancing with anyone else, but he supposed he'd try. Kai grimaced when he stepped on her foot within

"Congratulations, Cuz." Ben took Gwendolyn's hand and twirled her around as the speakers blared a song with a slightly faster tempo than the previous one.

"Thanks," She replied. "You're next. Could you believe it? We're grown-ups! Isn't that terrifying?"

"To be honest, I was kind of expecting this a little sooner from you." He chuckled. "You've always been the mature one."

"You're catching up, sort of." Gwendolyn noticed the lack of brown stubble that had been peppering his face in about the past year or so. Ben had been trying and failing to grow out his beard, and tonight it seemed that he had decided to shave himself clean for the event. "Are you excited for your wedding? Lots of important people are going to be there." Ben and Kai's union were going to be held in outer space, attended by none other than the Magistrata herself, among many other world leaders and celebrities, and broadcast to the entire universe.

Ben shrugged. "Sure am," He replied, unconvincingly. "You've got some pretty cool guests, too."

Her eyes swept around the room and she couldn't help but feel rather proud of herself and her cousin; the room was filled with familiar faces, individuals of all shapes and sizes (much to her mother's delight) they had encountered throughout their years of delving into intergalactic business. Some they had known since they were children, like Eddie Grandsmith and Cooper Daniels. Some they encountered a while later, like Alan Albright, Helen Wheels, and Manny Armstrong. There were friends of hers and Ben's from school, including former bullies Cash Murray and J.T. Baker. A number of their colleagues were there as well, including Molly Gunther, Elliot Robinson, and Ben's Revonnahgander partner, Rook Blonko, along with his own betrothed Rayona. And then there were Kevin's—ahem— _friends_ , like Argit, the porcupine-like alien, who at least had the decency to dress up and act… well… decent. She watched as he made small talks with her grandmother, Verdona, who seemed rather amused by the creature.

Wait—"Grandma?!" She gasped and stopped in her tracks, nearly causing Ben to stumble over her feet. She let go of his hand and began to make her way to her estranged grandmother, but Grandpa Max had gotten to her first. The two headed out to the floor to dance—Verdona's favorite human pastime, as she had once told her. A strange knot swelled in her stomach as she watched her grandparents embracing one another, swaying to the music. Falling in love outside your own species is difficult, and not necessarily from a reproductive point of view. Max and Verdona had crossed paths as young adults, but the differing lifespans of the two species meant that while Max had developed into a fully mature human over the years of their marriage, Verdona was only just hitting adulthood by Anodite standard. As much as she might have loved Max, and Gwendolyn really believed that she did, she could not have stayed _and_ survived. She was a free spirit, born and grew up in a world without a care. Staying on earth, with its rules and conventions, traditions and expectations, would dim the light that was Verdona, and Gwen believed that Max knew it, too. That, she figured, was the main difference between her and her grandmother, the reason why she had rejected Verdona's offer to live in Anodyne many moons ago.

So, she brought her thoughts back down to earth, fulfilled her duty and danced with one guest after another, and fantasized about what she and Kevin were going to do once they were free of all this. She ate the silky vanilla wedding cake (vegan, gluten-free, and nut-free, upon request by Aunt Sandra!), sipped on her champagne after each toast (downed a whole glass after a particularly embarrassing speech from Lucy), and handed out favors to the guests that were leaving early. When finally, the only people left in the ballroom were the ones also staying at the mansion, Gwendolyn grabbed Kevin by the hand and led him outside. She wrapped her arms around the back of his neck and pressed her lips against his, pulling him as close as their situation permitted. As their tongues began to dance, she wanted him to rip her dress open, wanted him to make her scream, wanted to not care about anything else in the world. Between wedding planning, work, and her doctorate thesis, the last few months had not been kind on their intimacy.

"Ahem," they broke apart when they heard a cough. Gwen's older brother, Ken, was standing nearby. "Mom just wanted me to tell you and Kevin that you guys can go up to your room if you want, and not to worry. She's going to take care of the clean-up." He grinned. "If I were you, I'd disappear before she changes her mind." With that, he retreated back inside.

Gwendolyn and Kevin exchanged a look. Without a warning, she used her powers to teleport them into their suite.

"Ugh!" Gwen kicked off her white pumps across the room. Despite all of the spells she used to make her shoes comfortable, her feet were blistered and sore. And, ew, stinky. She went into the bathroom and began filling up the tub with hot water as Kevin took off his many layers of clothing. He was not in half as much pain as his new bride, but he was equally exhausted. He entered just in time to see Gwendolyn shrugging her dress off her bare hips.

"Why didn't you tell me you were commando?" He hissed, his foot caught in the pipe of his pants as he attempted to take them off as quickly as possible.

"Because, I don't know, I expected you to grope me at some point and figure it out yourself." She smirked, and lowered herself into the tub. "Now, get in."

He didn't need to be told twice. He slipped in across from her and pulled her forward until she was straddling his lap. He made a trail of kisses down her neck before suckling on the patch of skin just below her collarbone, his hands roaming her body. She squirmed against him, feeling his erection grew underneath her. His hands kneaded her perky breasts as she ran her own hands through his thick black hair. He loved the sound of her moans. One of her hands wandered down, grasping his hardness and made soft pumping motions until he came to full erection. He groaned and gripped her ass, fingers teasing the edge of her folds. He felt warm slickness there that had nothing to do with the water. She kissed him full on the lips, positioning herself carefully so that her entrance met the tip of his penis, and plunged herself down. His nails dug into her flesh and she moaned into his mouth.

He started slow, purposeful, enjoying the feeling of her muscles stretching and clenching around his member. She was good at that. He felt a sharp tug at his hair and picked up his pace, pumping in and out as fast as he could, given the circumstances. He latched his lips onto her nipples, sucking and softly biting each of them. Their moans and grunts echoed against the bathroom walls. It took all his might to keep from ejaculating too early, wanting to let her get to her climax first, and once she did he felt himself let go as well.

They were tired and pent-up. Kevin wanted to fall asleep right then, but Gwen nudged him as she unblocked the drain. "Come on, the bed will be so much more comfortable than this tub." She hopped out and wrapped a fluffy white towel around her body before handing Kevin the other one.

"Mmm, 'kay," Kevin grunted, taking the towel off her hand, quickly dried his body, and threw himself on top of the bed covers, stark naked. Gwendolyn sighed, drying herself a bit more thoroughly before slipping next to him.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

 **The Breakout**

A rude awakening came in the form of loud beeps from the two circular, palm-sized badges they kept inside their bags. Gwendolyn was the first to respond, groaning as she jumped out of bed to retrieve her badge. Kevin stirred next to her, growling into his pillow. They'd had maybe four hours of sleep at this point.

"Agents Levin and Tennyson-Levin, what's the situation?" She spoke into the badge. She sat down on the edge of the bed as Kevin crawled toward her, resting his head on her shoulder.

"I am sorry to bother the two of you on your, um, sticky-sugary-lunar-cycle," Came Rook Blonko's voice.

"Honeymoon," Gwendolyn corrected. "It's okay, our leave doesn't start until Monday, technically."

"It's so not," Kevin grunted against her shoulder. Gwendolyn elbowed him lightly.

"We have received news of a massive breakout at Incarcercon, in the Null-Void. Security cameras were disabled at the time of breakout and agents on the field found no signs of the prisoners anywhere. We were hoping—"

"That with my mana-tracking abilities and Kevin's knowledge of the Null-Void, we'll be able to help." Gwendolyn concluded. "We're on our way." She stood up abruptly, the loss of support letting Kevin's face fall into the sheets. She understood perfectly how Kevin felt, as it was exactly how she was feeling as well. She had been looking forward to another day off, lounging around with her new husband, getting started early on baby-making, perhaps. They hadn't been particularly careful with protection ever since Kevin made his reluctant proposal. With earth officially joining the intergalactic alliance and more humans, mutants, and alien-hybrids joining the Plumbers and making it stronger and safer, Gwendolyn felt that it was high time for them to get started on a family. But this was occupational hazard; she knew what she was getting into the moment she accepted Magister Patelliday's offer to get her badge back after she graduated from college; so, she gathered her underwear and donned them before reaching for her Proto-Tech armor.

Kevin dutifully followed her example, putting on his boxers and tank top before stepping into his Proto-Tech armor. He gave her a grave look, pulled her into his arms, and kissed her on the lips. "Let's get this over with," He sighed. They stepped out of their room and stumbled across Kai, clad in her own armor. Kai was a reluctant recruit, more interested in her archaeological digs and findings than fighting bad guys, but she was a skilled and resourceful member of the team when it came down to it.

"Mr. Big Hero already left without you. He thinks he can handle it by himself," Kai scoffed. "Tried to remind him the last time he tried to navigate the Null-Void without you, but…" She shrugged. Gwendolyn and Kevin rolled their eyes—Ben was notoriously stubborn and they knew it all too well.

"Blonko wouldn't let him." Kevin grunted. "Come on, I'll drive." The three made their way into the parking lot and into Kevin's, er, what used to be a green 1976 Dodge Challenger but was now a virtually indestructible, heavily customized, muscle-car-slash-mini-war-tank with black racing stripes. There probably was nothing left of the original car

Gwendolyn activated the car communication system. "Ben? Come in, Ben. Are you at the base yet?"

"Gwen—what are you—Kai woke you guys up, didn't she?" Ben's voice came from the speakers.

"No, Blonko did. But just as well, you _do_ need us," She snapped. "Can you update us on the situation? Blonko just covered the basics."

"You guys just got married! I wanted to be considerate."

Kevin huffed. "Tennyson, we know you can turn into, what is it, 10,000 different aliens now? But you are hopeless when it comes to investigations, navigations, or explorations, so tell us what we need to know and calm your dangly bits until we get there."

"I thought you'd stop being mean to me now that you're officially family." Ben whined. "Fine. A majority of the escapees, about thirty of them, are smaller-scale criminals, but there are some high-profile jerks on there as well. A few dishonorably discharged ex-Plumbers, that corrupt ex-warden Morgg, Blonko's old teacher Kundo, and… Mike Morningstar."

Kevin and Kai glanced at Gwendolyn, who tensed up at the mention of the latter. She had battled numerous psychopathic killers, rogue robot assassins, and various all-powerful beings from many worlds and dimensions, and yet the one that struck the most fear in her heart was a human male—granted, a mutant human male. Because as much as those other villains were capable of torture and murder, Michael Morningstar had violated her at her core. He took her trust and betrayed her, made her vulnerable, and assaulted her. He would never be forgiven, nor forgotten.

Ben was about to say more, but Kevin interrupted. "Okay, pause right there, Tennyson. We'll see you at the base." Suddenly Kevin wished he and Gwendolyn had ignored the badges. Whenever Morningstar was involved, Gwendolyn always got hurt. Badly. He took hold of her hand and squeezed it lightly.

The rest of the ride was spent in silence. As soon as they arrived at the base—through a chute in the parking lot of what was known as Grandpa Max's plumbing equipment store—Rook Blonko appeared to welcome them.

"Gwendolyn and Kevin, thank you for coming in. And thank you for inviting me to your festivities last night. Terran customs are most fascinating." Blonko smiled politely. Despite having been based on earth for nearly ten years, he was still not used to many human customs. It probably didn't help that his social life on earth consisted mostly of the Tennysons, Kevin, and Kai—not exactly the most conventional people around. "And Rayona enjoyed the cake very much." Back on their home planet, Revonnah, the Rooks' diet consisted solely of a fruit called amber-ogia. Even though they were basically omnivores, the pair were suckers for anything vegan, organic, and gluten-free—basically, anything recommended by Sandra Tennyson.

"No problem," Gwendolyn replied. "Did my mom give you guys enough of it?"

"She gave us plenty," Blonko nodded. "Now, Ben has been waiting rather impatiently for the three of you. I believe he has relayed to you all the details?" He led them into the command center, where Ben was leaning back on his chair, playing on the latest model of his favorite handheld gaming console, with feet up on the big round table in the middle of the room.

Kevin smacked Ben's feet off the tabletop before taking a seat next to him. "Not all, but we've got the important bit. I don't like that Morningstar is involved—that selfish bastard always finds a way to get what he wants somehow, and I don't want Gwendolyn anywhere near him." He shot a defiant look at Blonko and Ben, ready to counter any argument they were going to raise.

Instead, Blonko sighed. "We could not agree more." He declared. "This is why it has been decided that the five of us will be staying back to work behind the scenes, giving instructions to agents on the field. Some of them are currently scouring Incarcercon for any belongings the escapees might have left behind so that Gwendolyn could track them. And this," He passed a small disc, slightly thinner than their badges, to Kevin. He pressed the top of the disc, and instantly a rotating holographic image of a slightly dented globe appeared, floating above the disc. "Is a four-dimensional map of the Null-Void. It is still in Beta mode, but it is better than nothing."

The newly-wedded couple looked at each other, silently asking the other what they thought of the arrangement. Kevin held Gwendolyn's hand again. "Sounds good," He said, huskily.

"But… but… I can't miss the action!" Ben whined. "I'm Ben 10,000! I got a rep to keep!" This earned him a dangerous look from Kai. "Uh, okay. Working in the background. Cool."

Blonko handed Ben, Gwendolyn, and Kai a tablet each. "I have pulled up the files on all of the escaped convicts. I would recommend you peruse them until we hear from the field agent."

Gwendolyn got herself a head start. "Former agent Carmen Swift, formerly Terran but was mutated into an Aerophibian hybrid post-return from a mission in the Null-Void. Displayed increased hostility and defiance, dishonorably discharged after causing three deaths due to defying instructions on a subsequent mission. Incarcerated after discovered to be conspiring with others to conduct unauthorized illegal experiments using Plumber facilities and equipment." She paused as she scrolled to the bottom of the screen. "No explanations on the experiment." She looked up from her tablet and looked at Kai, who picked up where she left off.

"Former agent Phil Billings, former partner of Max Tennyson, former partner of Wes Green. Those are our grandfathers," She frowned. Ben and Gwendolyn had met Billings as children, but Kai had never met him. "Received a badge of honor after assisting Max Tennyson in defeating Vilgax. He had a good run as an agent, but was dishonorably discharged after he was discovered to conduct illegal business dealings by releasing and recapturing extraterrestrial felons and trading them for bounty. Incarcerated for the first time after said business dealings were discovered by Max Tennyson… escaped not long after. Showed symptoms of severe illness upon recapture, which medical professionals could not diagnose. Mutated into a Terroranchula hybrid and was put in solitary for the remainder of his time due to tendency for uncontrollable violence."

"Former magister Scott Leander, formerly Terran, currently a Psypiatosian-B. That's the same species as NRG." Gwendolyn looked up at Ben. "He began showing radioactivity after an explosion due to a failed illegal experiment. Nature of participation in said experiment was never established, but he was dishonorably discharged upon recovery due to noncompliance in investigation. Incarcerated for attempted murder on a proctor." She exhaled. "Again, no further explanation on the experiment or the proctor. I thought Plumber files are meant to be super-detailed!"

Blonko shrugged. "It looks like the files of the first three have not been updated for about fourteen or fifteen years. The other files are very up-to-date, however."

Gwendolyn paused, her emerald eyes betraying worry. "Grandpa sent Billings to the Null-Void when we were ten years old. Sudden mutations and involvement in illegal experiments? This doesn't sound like a coincidence."

Kevin's dark eyes met hers. "Morgg have extensive knowledge of the Null-Void and Kundo definitely still has it out for us. And who the fuck knows how Morningstar got himself involved in all of this, but that's how leeches are, I guess. Pretty suspicious if you ask me."

"Very," Gwen added, darkly. She had a _bad_ feeling about this.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

 **The Threat**

She knew it.

She had known for at least a couple of weeks now. Not for sure, but she had strong suspicions. There was the fatigue, as if her energy no longer belonged to just herself. There were the random bouts of nausea, although she had yet to actually vomit because of it. There was the breast tenderness, which caused Gwendolyn to have an unusual aversion for bras, which Kevin found surprising but rather delightful. And then there was the fact that she was over fifty days late for her period. Gwendolyn didn't do late—her body was like clockwork; her period came every twenty-seven days, no more, no less.

She stared at the little white stick in her hand. Next to the pink plus sign, there was the number "4." She was four weeks pregnant. The baby must have been conceived a few days within the wedding. With a massive number of extraterrestrial felons still on the loose and a number of people connected to the Plumbers have recently gone missing, fertility and conception had been pushed to the back of their heads. It probably would have been a terrible idea to break the news now; everybody would freak out, and likely make her take an early maternal leave. She sighed and crumpled the stick into dust using her powers. She'd tell them when she began to show.

Angry beeps snapped her from her reverie. Her badge had been doing that at least three times a day now; nothing surprised her anymore. "Agent Tennyson-Levin, what's the situation?" She pressed the communication button.

"Agent Tennyson-Levin, you are being summoned by the Magistrata. Are you available right now?" Came a squeaky, hesitant voice she did not recognize.

"I am available," She replied. What did the Magistrata want with _her_? It was Ben's wedding that she needed to attend. With that, a flash of green appeared and encased her within. When the glow was gone, she found herself hovering inside a large gyrating metal structure seemingly held together by sheer gravity, floating in the cosmos. In front of her stood three individuals: a graceful but stern-looking humanoid female with smooth cyan-colored complexion, short tentacles in lieu of hair on her head, and bright yellow eyes; a frowning humanoid male with angry-red shell-like skin, a head that was too big for his skeletal frame, and clawed hands; and a glowing violet-colored humanoid figure with long hair made out of pure light that spiraled loosely around her slender body. "M-Magistrata," She stammered. Didn't the leader of the most important intergalactic organization in the universe make appointments anymore?

"Greetings to you, Agent Gwendolyn Tennyson-Levin. Now, that is a mouthful. Your Terran naming customs is something I still need to get used to," She chuckled. "First of all, I would say that congratulations is overdue. I personally do not favor the mingling of personal and professional lives, particularly between two of our best Terran agents, but it is expected to occur every so often, I suppose. After all, you Terrans have such little restraint against your hormones and desires." The red man and the Anodite both chuckled at this remark, to Gwendolyn's dismay. "Now, let me introduce you to Proctor Servantis, my right-hand-man," She opened her hand toward the red man, "And Magister Vestara, of Anodyne." She nodded toward the glowing figure.

"You are Verdona's Terran granddaughter," Vestara acknowledged, cheerfully. "She is right, you are much more delightful than that little bitch, Sunny."

Gwendolyn blinked, slightly taken aback by her vulgarity. Being made out of pure energy gave Anodites the tendency to disregard conventions and to say or do whatever they pleased. "Uh... you know my family?" She asked, despising herself for sounding dumb in front of two of the most important people in the universe and an Anodite.

Vestara chuckled again, more pleasantly this time. "Why, yes! Verdona used to be my best friend, until she was kidnapped and brought to earth. She was one of the reasons I joined the Plumbers, actually. We are powerful beings, but our versatility is what also makes us often preyed upon by other species. Joining the intergalactic alliance gives us just a little more of the protection that we need."

"And on that note," The Magistrata spoke again. "You would know by now that Terrans are quite... pliable. Their low level of evolution allow for various modifications to their DNA, major or minor. Terran hybrids are quite common, although whether or not they have extraterrestrial abilities is up to chance."

 _Like me and Ben_ , she thought. _And Ken_. At least Ben had the Omnitrix—and had shown a surprising aptitude for transforming into and utilizing the skills of other life forms. Ken had followed their father's footsteps in becoming a lawyer and had long adopted their mother's no-nonsense attitude toward intergalactic matters.

"We allow the mating between Terrans and non-Terrans because their mutations tend to be weak."

"'Allow'?" Gwendolyn interrupted. She didn't think that the leader of the Plumbers would have adopted such a eugenic point of view.

"That's right, Missy. The universe has its course. Mixing incompatible DNA produces nothing, most of the time. However, mixing compatible DNA that happen to carry some... potentially dangerous abilities, that's playing with fire." Vestara nodded. "Anodites do not have DNA. Natural Anodites are conceived in a manner similar to how new stars are formed inside nebulae. However, if an Anodite chooses to mate with a biological species, like Verdona did, he or she could create a DNA sequence for themselves. The energy Spark often appears in extraordinary individuals, such as yourself."

Gwendolyn started to feel dizzy. "Please get to the point." She requested. The Magistrata opened her mouth, but Servantis, who had been perfectly quiet until this moment, cut her off.

"I hear you are a rather clever girl, Agent Tennyson-Levin, so I will give you this explanation and expect you to understand. You are an Anodite, a being made entirely of energy. Lacking the traditional Anodite upbringing, you are much weaker than natives such as Vestara and Verdona, but much, much stronger than an average Terran. Your mate is half-Osmosian, from Osmos V, a species mainly known for the ability to absorb energy and matter." His voice lowered to nearly a hiss. "An overflow of energy causes Osmosians to lose their mental balance. In this manner, Osmosians and Anodites are quite alike."

Gwendolyn recalled the first time she had accessed her full Anodite powers. As her flesh and blood shell was consumed by the energy glow, she felt this hum, like a strong electric current, surging around her. It was euphoric and simultaneously maddening. She had momentarily forgot how it felt to be human, to be bound by physical and biological limits. In that moment, she was invincible, indestructible, she was great and she was terrible… and she was frightened. She felt frightened of herself, until she heard Kevin's voice begging her to come back, to let go of all the power. It was one of the most difficult decisions of her life, but she had appreciated it because it gave her an insight into what it felt like to be Kevin.

"Now, with all this information at hand, could you tell me, Agent, what sorts of power do you think you and your mate's offspring might have?"

"They… might not have any." Gwen replied, matter-of-factly.

Servantis growled. "That's one possibility. Very unlikely, however. They could be an Anodite, also a possibility. It is much more likely, however, that they will be an Osmosian. Growing up inside the womb of an Anodite, having a constant power source. Meaning that upon birth, it is likely to be extremely strong, and perhaps very literally, intoxicated on power. Such a being will be infinitely out of control."

"And that outcome, Agent Tennyson-Levin, is not something we want." Declared the Magistrata.

"Are you saying that I shouldn't—have a child—with my own husband?" Gwendolyn asked, in disbelief. This whole conversation felt like a very bad dream.

"Oh, no! That's not what we are saying at all." Vestara laughed, pleasantly. "When—if—you become pregnant, we need to be able to monitor your progress. You must understand, Gwendolyn, your life would be endangered as well, if the child does turn out to be an Osmosian."

Gwendolyn hardly managed to hold herself back from screaming. "Are you… is this… under your authority?" She asked the Magistrata.

"Our mission is to keep the universe safe. If your offspring becomes a threat to the that safety, then I am afraid that it is our duty to prevent that from happening." The Magistrata nodded "Understand, Gwendolyn, that I do not wish anything terrible to happen to you or your family. When—if—the time comes, please contact me directly with the information and we will go over the strategy we'll be employing."

Gwendolyn gulped. For once in her life, she was speechless. She was growing uncomfortable under Servantis' smug stare.

"You are excused, Agent. Have a good day." The Magistrata nodded again. With that, Gwendolyn found herself back in her bedroom, clutching her badge. Her hands were shaking, her breathing hard and shallow.

The way they spoke to her made her feel like she was carrying a ticking time bomb—one that would lead to the ultimate destruction of mankind. But there was no way—the little life growing in her womb was barely even alive yet. It was smaller than a pea at this stage, a mere accumulation of cells lacking any sophisticated forms. She stopped herself and took a deep breath. She needed to clear her head. She needed to meditate.

Gwendolyn assumed a cross-legged sitting position on her bed and closed her eyes. She directed her thoughts toward the sounds of her own breathing, imagining the world around her to be a shimmering shade of pink and purple—the colors of her life energy. She wasn't sure how long she had stayed in that position, but her concentration was shattered when Kevin gave her a playful jab on the ribs. She squealed as she bounced on to the fluffy mattress and grimaced at her husband. "Kevin! What if I was like, in the middle of sending my astral projection to save an entire third-world nation or something?"

He shrugged before pouncing at her playfully. "You usually have your force field up when you're sending an astral projection. That was just regular meditation." He kissed her on the forehead, on the tip of the nose, and eventually, on the lips.

She smiled and returned his kiss. He knew her well. She inhaled his scent, a delicious mixture of sweat and motor oil. These days, when he wasn't dispatched on the field, he spent his time in their oversized garage, working on various Plumber vehicles. He was good at it, and now that earth had advanced into level-three technology, there was a lot more he could do with those vehicles. It kept him happy and close to her, especially considering one of their worst enemies was at large with a bunch of other baddies.

She ran her hands over his chiseled chest and abdomen. They were a good-looking pair—at twenty-six, he still had that bad-boy rock-star look, with black hair down to his shoulders and stubbles on his square chin, complete with the various leather jacket and pants combinations he had taken a liking to. She was slim and toned as always, light freckles still peppering her heart-shaped face, but her flaming red hair was now styled into a sleek asymmetrical bob that framed her face beautifully and when she was not wearing her smart-casual everyday outfits, she opted for skintight compression outfits that allowed her to move as freely as she needed to. Being somewhat public figures, the two often found their pictures plastered over newspapers and gossip magazines—as well as their digital counterparts—and even more frequently featured on Jimmy Jones' video-blogs. She was all too aware of how they looked to outsiders, of the attention they were gaining. Their lives were not their own, and neither would the life of the baby that's growing inside her. That made her a little sad.

"What's wrong?" Kevin asked, nuzzling her neck.

Gwendolyn exhaled. "I'm just deep in thought." She looked into his dark eyes. They were the darkest shade of brown, almost black. "It's been a month, and we still haven't figured out what those escapees are up to, or even where they might be. I can't even trace him. Mike, I mean. I'm worried."

He was, too. There had been more breakouts lately—Aggregor, the Osmosian villain; Albedo, the rogue Galvan who had accidentally fused himself with Ben's DNA and thus looked identical to him, except he had white hair and red eyes instead of brown hair and green eyes; the reanimated Dr. Viktor; Dr. Animo, the mad geneticist; and Dr. Joseph Chadwick, another mad scientist who used to work with the Forever Knights. Just like their predecessors, the new escapees were gone without a trace. In fact, they had discovered that the remaining prisoners now no longer had any memories of any of the rogue felons. It was as if they were never in Incarcercon, or in the Null-Void, at all. Their acquaintances that the agents managed to contact seemed to believe that they were dead. It was as if the Plumbers were chasing after mirages in a desert.

It had to be some sort of a grand scheme to take over the universe, or at least the earth. What else could it have been?

Instead of voicing his thoughts, he dove in for another kiss. He pinned Gwendolyn onto the bed, his rough hands sneaking under her dark blue tank-top, sending shivers down her spine. This was how they responded to emotional distress, each and every time. The first time they had sex was after Kevin recovered from being Ultimate Kevin. After he recovered from being Kevin 1,100, they practically lived in their bedroom for a whole week. Now it didn't really help that he was already half-naked and she was not wearing a bra. She exhaled blissfully against his mouth and pulled him closer. He massaged her tender breasts as his tongue explored her hot little mouth. In retaliation, she extended a hand to his pelvis and reached for his cock through his shorts. She squeezed lightly and he groaned, pulling away from her.

He pulled her up, peeling the tank-top off of her body, full of appreciation as her perky breasts came bouncing into view. He then tugged away at the elastic band of her leggings, the same shade of dark blue as her now-discarded top. She lifted herself up slightly and he pulled them off of her with ease. He ran his thumb lightly up and down her inner thigh, earning him a look of surprise and a gasp from her. He pushed her back down—roughly enough that her head bounced against the pillows, but not hard enough that she might have hurt herself against the headboard—and spread her legs, then dove in. Her toes curled against the sheets as his tongue made a gentle, painfully slow lap along her slit. He alternated between tickling and sucking on her sensitive little nub, feeling her body tense up at the sensations.

"Mmm, Kevinnn…" Gwendolyn chewed her bottom lip as she gripped the mattress. Oral sex was always delightful, but at the same time, frustrating. He was all too familiar with her sensitive areas and he had learned how to delay her pleasure, to prolong their foreplay. He loved being the one person who could make her feel this way, who could make her lose control of her wits, who could take her to paradise.

She moaned, squirmed, and grounded her hips—but before she could reach her rapture, he stood up with a mischievous look in his face. "You didn't think it was gonna be that easy, did you?" He took off his shorts in one swift movement, then flipped their positions—he was now lying on his back, she was hovering on top of him, her breasts dangling deliciously from her torso. She rolled her eyes before crawling backward until her face was parallel with his rigid member. She took the pale flesh in her fingers, carefully wrapping her lips around the swollen head. She explored its shape with her tongue, sending him into instant ecstasy. Gwendolyn slurped at the tip of Kevin's cock slowly, her eyes locking onto his, before taking in his entire length in her mouth. No matter how many times they had done the dance, it was never enough for him. She bobbed up and down on his cock, never breaking eye contact, sometimes teasing his balls and inner thigh with her fingertips. He pulled her up before she had the chance to send him over the edge. He loved cumming in her mouth, but not today.

She was once again lying on her back. He was on top of her, his mouth greedily suckling on every bit of her skin it could reach while the tip of his penis teased her opening. She squirmed against him, trying to get him to push his length inside of her. He eased into her, relishing the sensations of her muscles contracting around him. They thrust against each other, Gwendolyn's fingernails raking along Kevin's back as he gathered her hair in his palm, grunting and moaning and calling each other's names.

"Oh, fuck—ohhh!" Gwendolyn's flesh tightened around his member as she came. As per usual, he made a few final thrusts before ejaculating himself. Kevin kissed Gwendolyn on the cheek and flopped next to her.

"I _never_ want to be away from you. Ever." He muttered, kissing her forehead.

Gwendolyn giggled like a schoolgirl. They might have been in a relationship for ten years, and married for a month, but she still loved the effect she had on him. It never faltered. She was tempted to share with him her news, but then she remembered everything else that would follow. Once Kevin knew, Ben would know. Once Ben knew, the entire Tennyson family would know. Once her mother's side of the family knew, the tabloids would know. And there would be no escaping the Magistrata then.

"Neither do I." It was her turn to kiss Kevin on the nose. She rolled out of bed. "Come on, we both stink like a pair of motherfuckers. Let's take a shower." Kevin laughed at this, but followed her into the bathroom. He was rather proud to be the one to have awakened Gwendolyn's penchant for swearing.

Gwendolyn waited until Kevin was fast asleep before slipping off into the garage. She began muttering some choice words as her fingers drew invisible symbols in the air. At the end of her chant, a large stone door appeared in front of her, intricate carvings—a mixture of Celtic runes, Egyptian hieroglyphs, Ancient Aramaic symbols, and Brahmi scripts—flashed around the door frame. Gwendolyn frowned. _Someone's getting a little paranoid,_ she thought. Gwendolyn drew from her vast knowledge of magical history and carefully pronounced each syllable out loud. "Dal'theiwaz-tiwi-ka."

The door opened slowly, revealing a tall woman with olive skin, shimmering violet eyes, and long silver hair, clad in a knee-length violet robe and thigh-high leather boots. "Gwendolyn," She said, in a throaty voice. She had her hands on her hips, shoulder squared and chin raised high. If she was happy to see Gwendolyn, it was not obvious.

"Hope," Gwendolyn replied. "May I enter?"

Hope studied the younger girl's face, unspoken questions flashing in her ethereal eyes. "Why not," She nodded. Gwendolyn walked through the door and followed Hope into the magical garden of her magical palace. Hope, known as Charmcaster to most, was the queen of the Ledgerdomain, the realm of magic. As they passed, large stone creatures with glowing symbols all over their bodies turned toward them and bowed. They walked further into the garden until they spotted a fluffy-looking pink shrub underneath tall pine-like trees. Hope flopped down onto the shrub, which molded around her body like a beanbag, and motioned for Gwendolyn to join her.

"You didn't come to my wedding," Gwendolyn remarked, taking her place next to the sorceress queen.

"Huh," Hope replied, nonchalantly. "My invitation must have gotten lost in the mail." She avoided Gwendolyn's eyes.

Gwendolyn sighed. The two women had had a complicated history. Hope was the niece of one of Ben and Gwendolyn's earliest enemies, Hex the master magician. After Gwendolyn discovered her magical abilities (she hadn't known she was an Anodite back then), the two developed a rivalry. Five years later, Hex had sold his niece to Gwendolyn's boyfriend-turned-archenemy, the leech mutant Michael Morningstar, who used her as an energy source/sex slave/magical puppet, which prompted Hope's mental health (which was precarious as it was) to tip over the edge. Although Gwendolyn had saved her, she had tried to drain Gwendolyn's powers as revenge. A year later, Hope approached Gwendolyn for her help to overthrow the dictator Adwaita, who had killed Hope's father when she was a baby. Unbeknownst to Gwendolyn, the sorceress had wanted to trade her soul to bring her father back to life. However, her father had refused the deal and Hope was left heartbroken. Hope became deeply infatuated with Gwendolyn after the redheaded girl made the unfortunate decision of sticking around to console her. The feeling was not mutual, however, and though Hope chose to be friendly with Gwendolyn, she bore deep hatred for Kevin.

"So," The silver-haired girl purred. "What brought you to my humble residence, Princess?"

"I need advice." Came Gwendolyn's straightforward reply. "I have something that is being… sought after. I need to be able to hide it, but I can't think of a long-term spell that would work effectively."

Hope shook her head. "What is this… thing?" She asked. "You and I both know that magic do not work well with advanced technology. If this is one of your alien doomsday devices… I doubt I can help."

"It's not a device." Gwendolyn interjected, quickly. Her cheeks reddened slightly.

Hope narrowed her eyes. "What are you hiding, Gwendolyn?"

Gwendolyn took a deep breath and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she replied softly. "Hope, I'm pregnant."

"Oh, _joy_ ," Hope groaned. "And you need to hide it, why? That oversized baboon you call husband isn't the father? How many _men_ are in your life, Gwenny?" Hope gripped the soft leather purse she always had dangling from her belt and Gwendolyn readied herself to retaliate. When she was dealing with strong emotions (jealousy, for example), Hope was especially unpredictable.

"It's not that." She closed her eyes again. "I had a, uh, meeting with the Magistrata today. She's the leader of the intergalactic law enforcement organization I work for." From her previous run-ins with Gwendolyn and company, Hope had gained some knowledge about the Plumbers and their role. Gwendolyn had mentioned offhandedly about wanting to incorporate the Ledgerdomain into Plumber jurisdiction and advocate for magical studies to be introduced at the Plumber Academy, but Hope had taken neither pitch seriously. She enjoyed being the heart, soul, and only law in her kingdom far too much to let other people meddle in her business, even if it involved regular contact with Gwendolyn. "Anyway, she, uh… expressed concern over the hypothetical abilities of my hypothetical offspring and how to address it, hypothetically. I didn't tell her I was already pregnant."

"Please, they wouldn't do anything bad to a baby that's still in the womb." Hope waved her hand dismissively. "I thought humans were extremely anal about that sort of thing."

"She's not human."

The two women fell silent. Hope summoned several books from her private library, which flew out of the window and onto her lap. She pulled up a page on one of them and shoved the leather-bound manuscript onto Gwendolyn's hands. "This charm masks changes on your body to onlookers. Medieval witches used this charm to hide unwanted pregnancies in young women. Bear in mind that it does not actually change your body, so you'd still swell up, still have to put up with the raging hormones, et cetera. Also, if somebody has strong enough suspicions, it could break the spell." She pulled up another page on another hardback. "This one is straightforward. A protective charm specially designed for pregnant women. It protects both unborn baby and mother from external forces _and_ from each other. Huh, that's handy." She remarked casually.

Gwendolyn skimmed through the pages of the books quickly. The first spell didn't seem very useful—it might work for the first trimester, but she would have to figure out something else after that. The second spell was something she definitely wanted—it would prevent the baby from absorbing her mana, if it did have that ability.

Hope discarded one of the books to the side, grumbling about baby zombies, before flipping open a page on the next book. "Ah," Her face brightened slightly. "Here we go. This one allows you to share a mental connection with your baby. That way you can find out early what it's capable of and whatnot." Gwendolyn skimmed through that page, too.

"This says 'parasite.'" She pointed out.

Hope rolled her eyes. "Are you telling me that fetuses, little bundles of cells that live inside your organs, breathing and feeding through you for nearly a whole year of your life, are _not_ parasites? Honestly, Gwendolyn, I figured you were more creative than that." Gwendolyn bit her lip. The older woman had a point.

"And if it doesn't work… can I rely on your protection?"

Hope sneered. "Let them _try_ to enter here," She growled. "I will set my entire army of golems on them. _And_ Adwaita," She added, proudly. "I still have that stupid turtle on a leash."

Gwendolyn breathed an air of relief. "That's all I needed to hear." She smiled. "Thank you, Hope. I appreciate this. I appreciate everything you've done for me all these years."

And _that_ was all Hope needed to hear. "I'm not a fan of the haircut, Gwendolyn. I liked your long hair." She brushed her fingers through the auburn strands, then slowly traced a fingertip along Gwendolyn's jawline. "I wish you'd come here more often. It gets really lonely without you."

Gwendolyn wanted to point out that it was because Hope had shunned most visitors to her kingdom in fear of the return of Hex or Michael, but decided against it. Kai was the only other person Gwendolyn knew that Hope had allowed to enter Ledgerdomain, but the Navajo girl seldom had reasons to enter the magical realm unless it was to consult Hope regarding one possibly-magical artifact or another she had unearthed during her digs. "I'll get Kai to come visit soon. What about Grandpa? You didn't seem to mind him much when you met him. He'd find this place a hoot." She offered. "Either way, I'll pay you back for this."

Hope crossed her arms. "You know what I want, Gwendolyn."

"And you know why I can't give it to you, Hope."

"Well… a girl can dream." Hope eyed her coyly. She dreamed a lot about Gwendolyn, both while asleep and awake, frequently about the mind-blowing sex they could be having together, and about as frequently, about wrapping her freshly-manicured claws around Gwendolyn's windpipe as she squeezed the life out of her, drinking in her mana. Gwendolyn had no idea of the chaos that she instilled inside Hope's mind; infatuation, hatred, tenderness, callousness, desperation, loathing… if she couldn't have Gwendolyn, she would destroy her. She _did_ prefer to have her, though.

And there might just be a way to make that happen.

But she kept all of this to herself, returned Gwendolyn's tender hug, and silently admired the girl's curves as they wandered away from the garden, back toward the stone door. Nonchalance returned to Hope's face as she waved goodbye to the redhead.

All in good time.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

 **The Conundrum**

Ben ruffled his brown hair and groaned in frustration. Nothing was making sense. _Fifty_ convicted felons had escaped from the Null-Void and seemingly disappeared into oblivion, all the while leaving their loved ones with false memories of their deaths. Meanwhile, Alan Albright's girlfriend had recently reported him missing, nobody seemed to be able to get in contact with Helen Wheels, and Manny Armstrong had gotten himself into trouble with local law while on an off-world mission. And then there was that creepy proctor, Servantis. He sent chills down his back every time he addressed Ben. Maybe it was the way he seemed to know what Ben was thinking before he even opened his mouth, or the strange fascination he seemed to have with Kevin, or the way he treated Kai like dirt under his fingernail, or the way he stared daggers at Gwendolyn whenever nobody was noticing.

Gwendolyn hardly came to the base anymore; when she did, she seemed to avoid Ben. She now spent most of her days working from home, researching about alternate dimensions, about Swift and Leander, and about every major illegal experiment that was performed under Plumber jurisdiction dating back from the 1950's. She had a theory that Swift, Leander, and Billings were the main orchestrators of the breakouts, recruiting the other felons as bait or distraction for the plumbers, as well as to continue their experiment, whatever it was. Ben disagreed; he was more concerned of the escapees who had a bone to pick with his team.

"Why aren't you trusting Gwendolyn and Kevin on this?" Kai asked him. She thought that they were a little obsessed, but Ben was no detective and Kai was not as deep in Plumber-related work as the others. Xenoanthropology and xenoarchaeology were her specialties, after all.

Ben glared at her, annoyed. "Because they're chasing connections that don't exist. For all we know, they probably just worked together to escape and are planning to take us out one by one. Nobody in the entire organization seems to know what that illegal experiment is, and nobody seems to know who this proctor is that Leander attempted to kill."

Kai sighed. "Well, doesn't that seem like it makes some sort of a connection to you? Everyone except the Plumbers believe these felons are deceased. It's like… it's like either someone has done something to alter our timeline significantly, or… gone on a memory-modification rampage." She seemed surprised at her own words, as if she hadn't expected them to come out of her mouth. As a pupil of history, she always hated the idea of time-travel and shifting timelines. Professor Paradox had been one of her least favorite allies.

Just then, Kevin entered the quarters abruptly with Gwendolyn in tow. Ben noticed nothing, but she looked different to Kai. The Navajo girl felt a hypnotic sensation, similar to the one she often experienced when looking at Gwendolyn's pure Anodite form. She was exuding pure energy, like the sun, and yet Kai noticed dark circles around her emerald eyes, slight gauntness on her cheeks, and a slump on her shoulders. "Please tell us Servantis ain't here," He spoke in a low voice.

Kai shook her head in reply. "Hasn't been around all day, thank the Holy Ones. Gwendolyn, are you okay?"

The redhead grimaced at the question. "I must have caught some sort of a bug. Who else is at the base?" She pulled up a chair and sat next to Ben.

"Blonko, Cooper, and Jerry from inhuman resources." Ben recounted.

"Can you call Cooper and Blonko here? Make sure Servantis isn't with them."

Ben nodded and paged the other two agents through their badges. Cooper Daniels was the first to arrive, clad in an especially robotic-looking Proto-Tech armor, his left arm a giant Proto-blaster and his right arm a katana-like weapon with a laser blade. "Trying out new weapons," He shrugged, addressing the other four adults' confused look. Blonko arrived not far behind, looking a little flustered. He failed to notice a long piece of toilet paper sticking to the sole of his shoe.

"Cooper, can you please make sure no one can get in or out of this room for the next hour?" Gwendolyn requested. The technopath's blue eyes turned electric as his armor peeled off of him, scrambling to form a neat pile on the floor. He went toward the security system, overriding it to allow lockdown mode only in the room they were occupying.

"Okay, what's going on? What's with the secrecy?" Ben asked, absentmindedly tugging at his short goatee. It still looked weird on his face.

Gwendolyn turned toward Cooper again. "Oh, and make sure all communication devices in this room are blocked so no one could access it from outside. Just a precaution." Cooper obeyed. He was just as puzzled as Ben was, but he had learned to follow Gwendolyn's directions. The girl was smart—she usually knew what she was talking about. "Okay. First thing's first. Servantis can read minds. Not everyone's—he can't read mine or Kevin's, and I'm fairly sure he has trouble reading Cooper's. I think it has something to do with us being hybrids and mutants."

Kai raised an eyebrow. "And you knew this how?"

"I felt him trying to get into my head. At first, I wasn't sure it was him, but it was similar to something that's happened before." Gwendolyn swallowed. "About a month ago, I had a surprise meeting with him and the Magistrata. But that's a whole different matter and I'll explain it to you when it's time." She added quickly, as everyone in the room—including Kevin, opened their mouths, ready to bombard her with questions. "I found some really… interesting… and disturbing information that I need you to know. Servantis cannot know that we know." She emphasized the last sentence.

Ben gave Kevin a questioning look, which the Osmosian replied with another look that said, "Just listen to her."

"I found these files, which were not only heavily protected, but buried and hidden deep inside the Plumber's database." She activated a large holo-monitor in the center of the room and typed a few commands into the laptop she was carrying. She clicked on the first file, and a stream of unsteady, blurred, moving pictures filled up the holo-monitor.

A pale, lanky man with balding hair and fuzzy goatee peered into the camera. "Experiment two-six-two. Subject A, twelve-year-old Terran male with mutated DNA. Subject B, thirty-four-year-old Terran male. Reformed substance abuser with severe body modifications." The camera shakily flashed toward two figures strapped to a large metal table, adjoined by a number of tubes attached to a complex-looking machine in between them. Though blurred, they recognized the two figures immediately: the skinny young boy with jet-black shaggy hair and a hook nose was Kevin, and the olive-skinned man with half-shaved black hair and small spikes installed on his forehead was the villain they had known as Aggregor. A humanoid, devilish creature with bright red skin, glowing yellow eyes, and webbed red wings pulled down a lever on the machine. There was a quiet buzz, and the two bodies began shaking and seizing. The buzz stopped and it was quiet for a minute. The man stirred first, blinking a few times. He spoke something that the camera didn't quite catch and the video ended.

Gwendolyn's eyes swept around expectantly as the others fell into complete silence. Ben was the first to speak, eyes locked on Kevin. "That's you." He said, his voice shaking.

"That's me," Kevin confirmed, in a defeated tone. "Twelve years old, apparently. I have no memory of this."

"He said 'Terran with mutated DNA,'" Kai added. "You're part-Osmosian."

"That's what I thought," Kevin replied again. "Look, you can throw me suspicious glares all you want, I'm just as shocked as you are." Which was the truth. Gwendolyn grabbed his hand protectively. Ben's trust in Kevin had been running thin since the latest Kevin-gone-bad incident four years ago and she could not put up with the two lunkheads clashing against each other at the moment.

Cooper frowned. "That machine looked like it was transferring something from Kevin to Aggregor." He turned to Gwendolyn. "Did you find out the nature of those experiments?"

Gwendolyn nodded. "Exactly what you just said. He copied some of Kevin's DNA sequence—the mutated part—and transferred it into Aggregor. Who was born Gregory Aguilar in Wichita Falls, Texas, by the way." Her eyes glinted dangerously. "You know who else they performed the experiment on? Ragnarok, born John Wein in Apple Valley, Minnesota. Carmen Swift. Scott Leander. Phil Billings. Himself. And, I suspect, Pierce Wheels, Helen Wheels, Manny Armstrong, and Alan Albright."

The room fell silent once again. This was too much information. Gwendolyn chewed on her bottom lip and pulled up four files on her laptop, opening them simultaneously. "Pierce and Helen Wheels, born Pierce Adams and Helen Schnell. Ran away from foster home at ages ten and nine, respectively, and was not found until three years later, at which point they were adopted by Dwayne and Charlotte Wheels. Their powers began to show not long after their return and they formed a vigilante group along with Manny Armstrong before we discovered them ten years ago. Emmanuel Armstrong, son of unknown father and single mother Tara Armstrong, escaped from juvenile detention at twelve years old and was reported missing for three years. He and his mother moved away after he came home, his powers started to develop, and he met Pierce and Helen. Alan Albright, son of Greg and Ashley Albright, ran away from home when he was nine years old, also missing for the next three years." She looked up. "Can you guess the timeframe of their disappearances?"

"The summer of our road trip," Ben whispered. "When I first discovered the Omnitrix."

Gwendolyn nodded.

"This is a load of information," Blonko piped up for the first time since they were gathered there. "So, Servantis is a human?"

"Was a human," Gwendolyn corrected. "Derrick Cervantes, boy genius, decided to fuse his DNA with that of a Cerebrocrustacean's." She pulled up several black-and-white photos of the lanky, goateed man that appeared in the video earlier. In two of the photos, he looked younger, was not yet balding, and his goatee was but salt-and-pepper across his pointed chin. "Have you noticed how much he seems to hate me? I think it's because he wants to recruit Kevin back, and he realizes how impossible that is as long as I'm around."

Kai narrowed her eyes. "You mentioned having a meeting with him and the Magistrata. What did they want from you?"

Gwendolyn bit her lower lip so hard she could taste blood. She knew the question was coming; she was not prepared to answer it. "Servantis convinced the Magistrata that any children produced by Kevin and I would pretty much bring the end of the universe," She explained slowly. "Which is a load of bullshit. So… they… wanted me to tell them when-slash-if I get pregnant, so they could 'monitor' the baby." She glanced carefully at Kevin, who looked pale.

"And you are, aren't you?" Kai asked. "Pregnant?"

All eyes in the room were once again locked on Gwendolyn, who nodded.

"Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck." Kevin muttered, repeatedly smacking his own forehead. Okay, they had been trying for a while before the wedding, but the whole thing with the escaped convicts put a stop to that, and _now_ she's pregnant anyway?!

Kai grabbed Kevin's hand and glared dangerously at him. "Stop that, you idiot." Still gripping Kevin's hand, she turned back to Gwendolyn. "What are you going to do?"

Gwendolyn grimaced unhappily. "I haven't gotten that far yet. I was hoping you could help us figure it out." Kevin shook Kai's hand off him and pulled Gwendolyn into a tight embrace. When she explained some of her discoveries earlier, he thought it was soon to be time to start smashing heads and kicking asses, not figure-out-what-to-do-because-the-evil-mind-reading-guy-wanted-to-eliminate-my-pregnant-wife-and-recruit-me-for-some-illegal-alien-experiment-he-already-did-with-me-once-when-i-was-a-kid time.

"We can try to take him out," Ben said. "We've got proof that he's a bad guy, don't we?"

"Only the Magistrata outranks a proctor," Rook explained. "And if he is capable of reading minds and modifying memories, that might not work out particularly well. He could easily make us out to be the bad guys and get us all detained."

"What a conundrum! Perhaps I can be of assistance." An inappropriately cheery, British-accented voice boomed from the center of the room. Kevin, Kai, and Blonko immediately jumped into battle stance, while Ben spun around on his chair so fast that he fell face-first onto the floor, Gwendolyn shielded herself with a wall of glowing pink mana, and Cooper suddenly had the giant Proto-blaster back in his hands.

"Professor Paradox," All six of them called out, simultaneously, their varied tones of voice intermingling in a frenzied chorus. The immortal's appearance usually meant one thing—the threat they were facing were even more critical than they realized. Paradox hopped off the table upon which he landed and winked at Ben, who was attempting to pick himself back up as gracefully as possible. Before anyone could make a move, however, time stopped. Paradox moved forward, grabbed Gwendolyn's hand, and rewound the time flow in the room before disappearing with her in tow. When time resumed, the rest of the group found themselves facing toward Gwendolyn, who was no longer there.

"G?" Kevin called out. "I swear she was just sitting right there." He was trying his hardest not to panic. Something felt extremely wrong.

Ben frowned. "Paradox." He muttered.

"Excuse me?" Kai said, turning toward him.

"Professor Paradox. He must have something to do with this. I can't think of any other reason why she would be here a second ago and gone without a trace now without some sort of a struggle."

"That would make sense," Blonko agreed.

"Her laptop is still here," Cooper frowned. He peered into the screen and saw a series of heavily protected, encrypted files. "Kevin, do you know what she wanted to tell us about?"

Kevin hesitated. "Uh," He mumbled. "Some files she uncovered from Plumber archives. Top secret stuff. It's, um, she didn't really tell me. She just said we needed to tell you guys, A.S.A.P. Apparently it has something to do with me, though."

Everyone in the room turned to look at him. Cooper raised an eyebrow. "Do you mind if I take her laptop and try to work it out? The files are still encrypted, but I'm guessing she's found a way to open them. All of the history would be on this thing and it would be easier for me that way."

Kevin shook his head. "Knock yourself out."

In that moment, Proctor Servantis burst into the room. "Ah, my best agents, all in one place." He said, in a mocking tone. "Agent Levin, I need to speak to your wife. I was alerted that she was here at base today with you. Where is she?" His beady black eyes were cold and unrelenting.

Kevin stammered. "I, uh, um, you probably got it wrong, she's uh, she's home." He lied. "She hasn't been feeling too well, you know. And she's been taking care of her grandpa—Max Tennyson—he hasn't been particularly well, either." That wasn't a lie; Max contracted some sort of an infection after his latest off-world fishing trip with Patelliday and had been in the hospital for the past two weeks.

"Hmph," Servantis scoffed. "Fine, I'll have an agent come to your residence and speak to her. In the meantime, I suggest all of you return to work. And oh, Agent Daniels, overriding the security system without an approval by your commanding officer is a serious violation. I will overlook it this time since it didn't quite work, but do not attempt it again."

Cooper blushed. His inventions had never _not_ worked. Servantis must have simply reverse-overridden it—he was not stupid. The technopath clutched the laptop tightly to his side, but Servantis took no notice of it. The proctor turned around dramatically, his black cape flowing behind him. Kevin, Cooper, Ben, Blonko, and Kai breathed a collective sigh of relief when he disappeared out of sight.

"Now what?" Ben asked.

Kai shrugged. "We go back to work, I guess. Pretend things are normal until we find out what's going on."

Cooper slipped the laptop into his equipment satchel. "Here's hoping Gwendolyn will reappear sometime today." He muttered, darkly. "If not, well, I guess we'll find out what she was trying to tell us anyway."


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

 **The Double**

Professor Paradox weaved in and out of time and space with Gwendolyn's hand in his. She was somewhat used to the immortal's mysterious mannerisms and the confusion of time travel, but she was not prepared to suddenly be standing face-to-face with her Lenopan cousin-in-law, Lucy, who was currently taking the form of a disturbingly curvaceous Lepidopterran with a two sets of bright pink bug-like eyes (instead of the usual yellow or green) and a thick bush of blonde hair at the top of her head.

"Gwenny!" She exclaimed, then briefly took her original Lenopan form before assuming her human form, a lithe young woman just slightly shorter than Gwendolyn with an oval face, little button nose, freckles, and wavy blonde hair. "What's shakin'?" She pulled Gwendolyn into a bear hug, squeezing a little too tight for her liking, and leaving muddy handprints on the sides of her lavender-colored top.

"Good to see you, too, Luce." Gwendolyn replied. "Have you met Professor Paradox?"

"Actually, I have!" Lucy squeaked excitedly. "What's up, Doc?"

Paradox smiled his annoying lopsided smile. "Do you remember our plan?" Gwendolyn glanced between the two. They made up plans without her or Ben? Lucy's face turned serious.

"Is it time?"

"In precisely ten... no, nine minutes, yes."

"I'm assuming I'm still not receiving an explanation for this?" Lucy asked, her figure scrambling as she morphed into a new form. Gwendolyn blinked. When she opened her eyes, she saw herself standing in front of her—not a mirror image, more like a living photograph. Lucy had taken her identical shape.

The immortal smiled, but shook his head. "You will understand. Kevin should be home not long after you arrive. You know what to do." With that, Lucy faded from their view. Or rather, Gwendolyn suspected that they had disappeared from her view and into another time, or space, or space _and_ time.

They were now inside what seemed to be a spacecraft—one that seemed to be patched together from several different ships. A pair of teenage boys, one clad in a Proto-Tech armor-like suit, except tighter and white and green in color instead of the usual black and white, and the other in a synthetic black-and-grey leather racing suit, stood before her, eyes wide with surprise. There was something familiar about them. The boy in the white suit had olive skin, brown hair, and a pair of green eyes that resembled her own, whilst the boy in the black suit had jet-black hair that contrasted his pale skin and dark blue-grey eyes she had never seen on a human before. "Paradox!" They exclaimed.

"Hello, boys!" The time-traveler greeted cheerfully. "Your mechanical abilities are coming along nicely, I see." He addressed the pale boy, who shrugged in reply. "Now, aren't you going to greet our guest?"

"Hi, Aunt Gwendolyn." The brown-haired boy grinned and waved enthusiastically, while the brooding raven-haired one mumbled a small "hi," and flicked his wrist in a hesitant greeting motion.

Gwendolyn raised her eyebrow at Paradox. "You took me to the future? To see my nephew… and… who's he?" She eyed the gloomy teenager, sizing him up. He looked like Kevin. Nearly a spitting image, if Kevin's eyes were blue instead of brown. Could he be…? She touched her belly, which was mostly still flat.

"Uh," The teenager stammered. "I'm Kevin's son. Not—yours—though." He chewed his bottom lip and avoided Gwendolyn's eyes. He looked guilty, which made Gwendolyn feel guilty for him. Her eyes softened.

"Oh," She mumbled softly. Her future-nephew cleared his throat.

"Uh, it's not what you might think. You're kind of, uh, dead." _Again?!_ Gwendolyn recalled the one and only time she had tested a time traveling spell she came across in her magical book, which resulted in a universe where she had been killed off by Charmcaster and Kevin became one of her golems. "Your death kind of set off a whole bunch of problems, including Kevin becoming the evil Kevin 11,000, effectively destroyed the Plumbers as an organization, and was now controlling the Sol System from Saturn Colony as a mega-evil-mastermind…" His voice trailed off at the look Paradox was giving him. Kevin's son elbowed him in the ribs.

"Dude, too much information." He said. Gwendolyn's eyes widened, unsure of what to think. If she thought the information she had given her friends had been shocking, this one was absolutely terrifying.

"Is this my future? Or an alternate one? Ben and I have visited several different timelines when we were younger—but presumably that happened in our future—and they are shifting, right? You said it yourself, there is an infinite number of timelines that are simultaneously occurring, and because time flows like a river, sometimes multiple timelines confluence and –" Gwendolyn had to stop. She was making herself dizzy. She hated to admit it, but Ben dealt with time-travel-related things much better than she did. Maybe it's his lack of forethought or maybe it's his experience in being a Chronosapien, but either way, she wished he was there with her.

"This is one of your possible futures," Paradox confirmed. "I have just removed you temporarily from the confines of space and time, which caused a sudden expanse in the multiverse where everything becomes possible, depending on what action each person decides to take. This is one of the happier possibilities."

"I'm dead, and presumably so is my baby, Kevin is evil, a bunch of Plumbers are either dead, on the run, or captured, and you're saying _this_ is happy?" Gwendolyn asked, incredulously.

"That is correct."

Gwendolyn sighed and closed her eyes. "Why did you bring me here?"

"Oh, this is not for you. This is for _them_ ," Paradox cocked his head toward the teenagers. "They learned of your existence and are planning to prevent your death. We are here to tell them the very thing I told you once—time travel is for fools and immortals."

"… You're the immortal, so we're the fools." Kevin's son concluded grimly.

"What about Chronosapiens?" Ben's son piped up, unhelpfully. He flashed an awkward grin as his companion glared at him.

Suddenly, Gwendolyn noticed a whimper coming from behind them. A blue-black dog-like reptilian creature with glowing red eyes and spiky silver mane came up to her and began sniffing her, enthusiastic yet apprehensive. "Zed!" She exclaimed, and the Anubian Baskurr tackled her to the ground, joyfully licking her face and neck, which made her giggle. "You still have her!" Gwendolyn turned toward Kevin's son, who stared at her with an astonished look in his midnight-blue eyes.

He narrowed his eyes at Paradox. "Okay, so besides making me feel a thousand times worse than I normally already do, what's the point to all of this?"

"Ah, youths. Always so brash. The point, my young Devlin, is hope. Have it. Keep it." Paradox replied, glancing at his watch. "Alas, we must be going now. Whatever you decide to do from this point forward—or backward—do not give up hope. Toodle-loo!"

As they faded from view, Gwendolyn couldn't shake the sad, dark eyes of the youth out of her mind. If she didn't die, would he still exist? She thought about how they existed on two opposing ends of a spectrum, the deciding factor being Kevin. The boy wasn't happy. What did he do to him? Where was his mother? Tears stung her eyes when she realized that she didn't really want to know the answers to these questions.

Back in their home, a modest craftsman-style house a few blocks away from Gwendolyn's childhood home, Kevin was shocked to find his wife—or somebody that looked uncannily similar to his wife—trotting around the house, opening and closing cabinets in the kitchen the way she normally hated. Their pet Anubian Baskurr, a blue-black, reptilian-dog-like alien waited patiently in front of her bowl. If either of the two was home, it was food time.

"Oh! Thank blobs you're here! Where do you keep her food?" Gwendolyn's lookalike asked, her voice a few pitches higher than Gwendolyn's normally was.

Kevin froze in his place. "WhoareyouandwhathaveyoudonewithGwen?" He asked, in one breath. After everything that's happened today, he was _so_ in the mood for a good fight. Just not with Gwendolyn, preferably. His hand was ready to absorb the wooden material of their front door.

"Oh!" The woman blinked, before briefly transforming into a deep violet-colored humanoid-shaped blob and eventually, into a cute, petite blonde with a borderline creepy ear-to-ear grin on her face—Lucy. "Sorry! I forgot. I had to get here real quick, fool some people into thinking that I'm dear cousin Gwen, and Zed here's been bugging me to feed her! You should put her on a diet!" The Anubian Baskurr growled at her at this comment. "Oh, shush, you, you know you're just always hungry because you're not getting any." She chuckled.

Kevin raised his eyebrows. "Can you leave my pet alone? It's not my fault that earth veterinarians are wusses when it comes to spaying an alien dog, and Anubian Baskurrs are pretty hard to come by. We were going to make a trip to Anubia sometime this year, but you know…" Kevin trailed off. Zed huffed haughtily and walked over to Kevin, offering her head for him to pet. He did so, and she made a contented sigh. "Bottom cabinet next to the sink." He added.

Lucy opened the cabinet and reached for a canned mogwai-liver-and-mealworm (specially designed for extraterrestrial pets!) pet food and emptied it into Zed's bowl. The Anubian Baskurr immediately jumped over and began chowing down on her food. "So, what's Gwenny told you so far?"

Kevin sighed and plopped himself onto his favorite green La-Z-Boy. "That she found out something concerning my past that needed urgent attention from our team." He glowered. Cooper was apprehensive about attempting to encrypt the files at work, so they had to wait until tomorrow to find out what was happening.

"Tsk, tsk, Kevin Levin, ever so brooding." Lucy remarked. "Look. At this point in time, from what I understand, Gwendolyn is in a lot more danger than you are. So, man up and roll with the punches." She stared at him with a serious expression that he never thought would ever be visible on her face. If Lucy, of all people, said these things… he'd better believe her. "And in the meantime, I'm staying in your guest room. I don't think I can fool Servantis for long, but it's worth the try. Oh, and do you mind if I invite Cooper over every once in a while?" She giggled.

Kevin rolled his eyes. There was a rumor that Cooper had gotten himself a little too intoxicated and ended up going home with Lucy after the wedding, which kind of explained why the technopath hadn't been making as much goo-goo eyes toward his wife as he used to, but it was about as mindboggling as anything. Kevin never recalled them paying much attention to each other at all, but now they were going out—or hooking up, at least? _Ugh_. "Any idea when Gwen's coming back?"

Lucy shrugged and plopped down on the creamy white armchair opposite where Kevin was sitting. "Nope," She said. "Don't even know where she's headed. If you've got any suspicions, I'd suggest get it out of your mind now. You don't want Servantis on her trail."

"He can't read my mind that well, I don't think. Your boyfriend got reprimanded for overriding the security system, by the way. He's about to do something else that basically poses a security threat to the Plumbers, so better hope he doesn't get caught doing that." He sighed. "So, why are you here, again?"

"He's not my—what?" Lucy gave him an annoyed look. "Okay, back up. The reason I'm here is because Paradox told me to get ready to disguise myself as Gwendolyn because she's in danger and needed to get away. I was on duty in Lepidopterra when they came for me and told me that the plan was a go. Honestly, I don't think Gwen was even in on it. Not long after I came here, this Aerophibian lady and Prypiatosian-B dude came knocking in, saying that 'Gwendolyn's badge' sent a distress signal and they came to check in on it, Proctor Servantis' orders. Her badge isn't here anyway, so I told them that I lost it. So that's my story. Now you tell yours."

Kevin's face perked up at the mention of the visitors. "You know about the Incarcercon escapees? That sounded like two of them. Swift and Leander." He said.

Lucy frowned. "Those were their names." She said. "Damn it! This is why I hate being off-world so much. I didn't know any details on the fugitives! My higher-ups just told me you guys were handling it." She groaned.

Kevin chuckled. "If only Gwendolyn could see you now." The Anodite had a rocky relationship with her cousin-in-law. Lucy, ever the jokester, often pulled tricks on her that Gwendolyn didn't appreciate. At the same time, Gwendolyn was also envious of Lucy's success as a field agent and the fact that she became a commanding officer before Gwendolyn was even halfway through her undergraduate degree. Knowing that Lucy was visited by two people who were not only _not_ Plumber agents, but were also fugitives and did not recognize them would have made Gwendolyn's day—as petty as it might sound. "Well, Luce, I'm getting myself a drink. Do you want some?"

The Lenopan nodded. Kevin got up to grab two bottles of beer from the fridge, uncapped them, and handed one at Lucy while chugging the other one. Lucy sipped on the malty drink, deep in thought. Gwendolyn would have recognized the two, meaning that Servantis would have gotten the word that there was somebody disguised as Gwendolyn living here. She fucked up on that little detail.

Kevin sank back into his recliner. He knew she was thinking what he was thinking. "Look, Servantis can't go after you, knowing that he only had two fugitives who shouldn't be affiliated with him as witnesses. Whatever's going on, we'll find out when Cooper cracks the files. Plus, it's not like Gwendolyn would be gone for long. She'd tell me if she would be, right?"

But the two shared a look, not knowing the answer to that question.

"The next stop is your choice, Gwendolyn." Paradox declared. "Choose wisely. I cannot enter some of the dimensions to which this door may lead you. If you choose one of these dimensions, you will be completely on your own."

Gwendolyn stared pensively at the stone door. Anodyne was not an option—Verdona would be there, but so would Vestara. She considered the Saturn Colony, but it had just finished being built. She was recognizable and at this point they would still be heavily ID'ing everyone who went there. Anywhere that was under Plumber jurisdiction was generally a bad choice, including the Null Void. Gwendolyn was tempted to see if Paradox would be open to the idea of having her as a companion until everything settled down, but she stopped herself and made up her mind. Recalling the word she used just weeks ago, she spoke it confidently, her voice echoing in the wind. The foreign characters glowed against the opaque grey stone and the door opened itself.

Hope had been waiting for this moment. She had been watching. She was the one that had alerted Servantis of the little secret meeting Gwendolyn and Kevin had called back in the quarters. Ever since she learned of what was happening on earth, she had been observing, learning. Making sure she knew everything and anything anyone would do before they did it. But the Timewalker could ruin everything, so she hid. She heard Gwendolyn's voice calling the true name of her home and allowed the door to open, but Hope remained in her chamber, smiling into the ancient scroll she had held up to her nose.

"Then this is goodbye, Gwendolyn. Take care." He waved as she stepped forward. When she turned around, the door was shut. Professor Paradox entered the Ledgerdomain once, long ago, bringing with him the Alpha Rune to place at the dimension's core, but energy and time did not work on the same wavelength, so without a major source of power such as the Alpha Rune, Paradox would have gotten stuck inside Ledgerdomain. Gwendolyn exhaled through her nose and walked toward the looming castle in the distance.

Gwendolyn found Hope in her chamber, reading a scroll. "Did you know I was here?" She asked, mildly annoyed.

"Of course," Hope replied, putting down the scroll. "I just figured you knew your way around."

"It's still polite to greet your guests."

"Well, as far as I'm concerned, you are not a guest. This is your home now." Hope replied, softly. "You look tired, Gwendolyn. Have some sleep." She patted the spot on her circular bed, next to her.

It had technically been less than twenty-four hours, but encounters with Paradox often felt like they lasted a lifetime. Gwendolyn yawned. "Where do I sleep?" She stretched herself out, giving Hope a generous view of her supple curves.

"I have to be honest, I haven't prepared your room yet. There are so many empty rooms in this castle, with so many different views, I thought I'd let you choose your own quarters when you come here." Hope explained. "In the meantime, you could sleep here."

Gwendolyn chuckled. "Can I trust you to let me sleep?" She was already lying down on her back, hugging one of the many pillows to her side. Hope crawled up next to her, then extended her perfectly-manicured hands and began rubbing Gwendolyn's shoulders and neck gently. Gwendolyn responded with a satisfied groan.

"Don't you trust me, Gwendolyn?" Hope whispered, watching Gwendolyn with a tender expression as the younger girl melted under her touch.

 _Not completely_ , Gwendolyn thought, as she drifted to a dreamless sleep.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

 **The Aftermath**

People were disappearing right and left. Three months after the strange incident in the meeting room, Agent Molly Gunther stopped coming into work; her badge could not be traced, her house was empty, and her husband, an independent bookstore owner, was also nowhere to be found. Agent Elliot Robinson never made it home after an overnight security shift. Julie's fiancé, Hervè, was last spotted on an airport security tape, checking into his flight to Dubai where he had some photography gig. Within the next 24 hours, Julie never made it to the airport after winning her last match at the Global Tennis Championship—Ship, her Galvanic Mechamorph pet, had been left with Kevin and Zed at the time. Cash and JT were reported missing separately by their parents due to missing three weeks' payments on rent for their respective basements. Eddie Grandsmith went missing during a scuba diving trip. Gwendolyn's older brother, Kenneth, never made it into the courthouse on the day he was supposed to be defending an important client and his cell phone could not be reached. Ben and Gwendolyn's second cousin, Clyde, told his mother he was going into the city one weekend and she never heard from him again. Ben's former number one fan and current number one most subscribed vlogger on the internet, Jimmy Jones, had not uploaded anything in nearly a month and his fans were driving the whole internet crazy with their theories behind his disappearance. Gwendolyn's best friend and maid of honor, Emily, disappeared during intermission of her latest solo recital. Helen, Manny, and Alan's whereabouts were still unknown.

The earth team was stretched thin; the fugitives, at least the minor ones, were beginning to make random appearances throughout the country. Ben, Kai, Blonko, and Kevin found themselves traveling to five, six different states a day in order to attend to the attack sites, but most of the time the attacker was already gone. Lucy did a fine job juggling missions and disguising herself as Gwendolyn at first, but then she was dispatched to an off-world mission she could not refuse and Kevin once again found himself constantly being grilled about Gwendolyn's whereabouts by Servantis. Just as Cooper figured out the encryption tool Gwendolyn had used to open the files; the encryption was changed. Whenever he came close to cracking them, it changed again. It drove him into frustration and he was about ready to give up, if not for pressure from Kevin and Lucy.

It had now been five months since the last time Kevin woke up with Gwendolyn next to her. He was barely functioning, rarely showing up for work anymore unless there was a promise of a good fight. He couldn't stand Ben and Kai's constant fights about their upcoming wedding; Kai wanted to postpone it until things were somewhat back to normal, or at least until Gwendolyn returned, but Ben insisted that "the masses needed entertainment now more than ever" and was adamant to proceed with it. Cooper always approached him first about any updates he had on the files and he had gotten to a point where unless the technopath had made a breakthrough, he did not want to know. Rayona was bearing Blonko's offspring, and the two had been talking about taking leave to return to Revonnah until the delivery.

Kevin contemplated getting out of bed, but thought better of it. He rolled over so that he was lying facing down, pressing his face into the stinky pillowcase he hadn't bothered to change for months. He hadn't really bothered to do anything. Zed and Ship had teamed up and learned how to reach for and open cans of pet food, but they were running out and he would have to go into the store to get some more sooner or later. He felt completely numb, incomplete without his better half.

Then his badge beeped. He ignored it, but a voice came through anyway. "Kevin, where the hell are you?" Of course, it was fucking Ben. Why couldn't they just leave him alone for once?

"What is it, Tennyson?" He growled through the pillowcase.

"We had that meeting scheduled, remember? You need to come to work right now."

"Fuck off." Kevin rolled onto his back. "Just give me an update on it later."

Ben's voice grew more insistent. "Kevin, you're a core part of the team, meaning—"

"Meaning I don't give a flying fuck, Tennyson. Why can't you get that through your thick skull? Now get the fuck off the communicator and let me have some peace!" He shouted angrily.

Back at the meeting room in headquarters, Ben gave a sheepish, apologetic grin to his colleagues. He had expected some arguments, but he was not prepared for a tantrum. Kai sighed, stood up, and took the communicator off his hands. "Hey Kevin, it's Kai." She spoke, calmly. "We're in the meeting room and there are a dozen people here who just heard you screaming like a two-year-old. Are you okay?"

Kevin had to stop himself from throwing his badge across the room. "Clearly, I'm fucking not, now please leave me alone." He snapped and turned off his badge, tossing it across the room. He felt tears stinging his eyes and he began to sob. Manly, stifled sobs, but sobs nonetheless.

Kai clutched the badge in her hand and turned toward her colleagues. "I'm gonna go talk to him. Send both of us the meeting minutes, please." She said. Her grandfather, Wes Green, and Max Tennyson nodded at her.

"That boy needs some help," Max declared. "Ben, I'm very disappointed in the way you're handling this." He scolded the young man as if he were ten years old again. Ben winced and turned beet-red.

"Grandpa!" He whined. Being scolded by his grandpa was one thing, but being scolded in a roomful of colleagues who looked up to him as Hero of the Universe? Yeah, that was humiliating. Meanwhile, Kai exited the building and hopped onto her motorbike, setting the destination address to Kevin and Gwendolyn's residence.

She needed to get away, too. From Ben, from her colleagues. Everything was getting on her nerves lately, and it wasn't just the whole wedding thing. Sure, the timing was bad and she had more pressing things on her agenda than choosing bridesmaids' dresses, but what really bugged her was Ben's pigheadedness. All the years of being in the public eye and he didn't seem to have learned a thing. If anything, he was turning into the younger, alternate-dimension version of himself known as Ben 23—a glorified reality TV star who used his Omnitrix-given powers for nothing more than entertainment and product endorsement. She was strongly considering breaking up with him, distancing herself from the whole Plumber business, perhaps finding a perfectly ordinary man to settle with instead, but she was also too stubborn to let so much of her hard work go to waste.

Plus, without Gwendolyn around, the team needed a level-headed female to balance out all the testosterones in the team.

Kai arrived at the house, parked her motorcycle outside the garage, and entered using the spare key Gwendolyn had given her just in case Ben lost his (which he already had). She was aghast at the sight before her—from the moment she took the first steps inside, she could see takeaway containers, empty liquor bottles, and random car parts littering the hard-wood floor. Walking into the kitchen, Kai saw that half of the room had not been touched for months, whilst the other half was piling up with dirty utensils. There were oil stains on the sofa. Empty cans of pet food piling up next to the recycling bin. _When was the last time anyone had been in here?!_ Zed and Ship were curled up on their respective pet beds, looking bored. Zed watched Kai with one eye while the other was lazily closed.

"Poor things," She walked toward them and gave them a pat on the head each. Ship let out a low "shiiip" sound while Zed gave a half-purr, half-snort. Kai sighed and continued toward the bedroom. She knocked twice, but there was no answer. She cracked the door open and saw Kevin sprawled out on the bed only in his pajama pants, his unruly black hair matted around his face. _Fucking Holy Ones_ , Kai thought, when she realized that he was crying. "Uh… Kevin?"

The dark-haired man shot up with a bewildered look in his eyes. He wiped his runny nose and eyes roughly, blinking a few times. "You saw nothing." He growled through his stuffy nose.

Kai raised both her hands, as well as her eyebrows. "Nothing but the very manly mess around."

Kevin closed his eyes and shook his head. "What the fuck are you doing here?"

Kai shrugged. "I just thought talking to you in person would do a lot more good than trying to reason through the communicator," She said. "Things are really shit, huh?"

"Well, no shit, Sherlock." Kevin snapped. "I'm fucking done with you people and your stupid problems, anyway. My wife is pregnant and missing. And nobody's fucking trying to find her."

Kai sat herself down on the sole armchair across the bed, presumably where Gwendolyn would do her night readings. "She's a big girl, she can take care of herself."

Kevin glared at her. "You don't think I know that? She's more fucking powerful than Ben, she just doesn't let it show. But she can be naïve, and she always tries to save everyone, so who the hell knows what kind of a problem she'd gotten herself into this time?!" He hated how much he sounded like he was whining, but he couldn't stop it. There was so much he wanted to get off his overly-broad chest. "For all I know, Morningstar's got her! Or Hex, we never found that fucking guy since the whole Vilgax thing ten years ago. Or—" He stopped himself as he realized something. He might know where she was.

"Or?" Kai inquired. There was an expression on Kevin's face that she could only interpret as a profound realization.

He pushed himself up. "Or she's perfectly fine. And she's got a plan."

Kai swallowed nervously. Was Kevin developing some form of a personality disorder? He was literally crying just a minute ago, and now he was grinning like a maniac.

"Kai, I need your help. You need to leave and make sure that whatever happens from this point forward, Ben doesn't get in my way. Focus on finding Gwendolyn if you can. But I need to do this alone."

He had a stupid idea. A really, really stupid idea. But it might just work.

Servantis grinned into the monitor. The boy was breaking down, although not in the way he had hoped. The knowledge that his mate was still alive had slowed that process. He had underestimated the girl - she must have hidden in an alternate dimension, somewhere not even her own mate or pesky cousin could find her. She was far too clever; she had discovered the files he had carefully hidden within the many layers of Plumber database, half-discovered the story of—as he referred to them—the amalgam kids. Could have discovered her dear husband's own full history, if she had been persistent enough. Servantis suspected she didn't want to find out. But no matter; she was gone for the moment and Kevin was weak. Just watch him crying into his pillow! Once the final stage to his plan had been executed, Kevin would be his. He would think about what to do with Gwendolyn when the time would come. Cooper Daniels would never be able to crack those files.

He had to attribute some of his success to sheer luck, however. It was as if a voice in his head had told him to look at the security tapes when Kevin and Gwendolyn, who were not scheduled to be at the base that day, barged into a meeting room. Something had tugged his attention at the security system, which allowed him to find a simple fault in the customization Agent Daniels had been working on. And he had this gut feeling that whoever would be at the Tennyson-Levin residence, it would not be Gwendolyn, and so he had dispatched the two felons, Swift and Leander, to determine this. If he had believed in such a thing, he would have called it divine intervention.

Swift entered the room, her pointed tail flicking behind her. "Wow, he looks awful." She remarked.

"Yes, everything has gone according to plan." Servantis replied in a satisfied tone. "Dispatch Aguilar. The remaining targets are currently at the base; dispatch Billings and Kundo to distract them. Have Morgg patrol the perimeter and make sure everything is secure. Check up on the scientists and our… experiment subjects. And send Morningstar to me."

Swift nodded, taking mental notes of her boss' orders. "We checked up on the subjects just before, Sir. Yamamoto and Robinson are both rejecting the DNA graft. They are in a coma. Process reversal is currently in progress."

Servantis let out a half-sigh, half-groan. "This would have never happened if we used Levin instead of Aguilar. Make sure we don't lose them, keep them under until we have Levin." Swift nodded again and left the room. Some moments later, Michael Morningstar entered, a black iron mask covering his face, which at the moment resembled more that of a corpse than a living human.

"You called for me?" He asked, coolly. Michael Morningstar's abilities had fascinated Servantis. Instead of keeping what he absorbed as latent energy, as Kevin did, he consumed it entirely, making himself stronger and—gag—prettier. He was near omnipotent when he was charged up, but his powers were much more destructive when he had been starved for a length of time. His late father, Gabriel, with whom Servantis was acquainted during his time as an active agent, possessed no such powers. Servantis had no use for Morningstar's powers, but he was clever, a smooth talker, and he was well acquainted with the Tennysons—enough to make him a useful asset in his plans.

Servantis nodded. "Yes. We need to locate Gwendolyn, and fast. Given your history with her, have you any idea where she might be hiding?" He asked. Servantis found it intriguing that two different energy vampires had somehow found their lives intertwined with an energy being and grew infatuated with her. Even more intriguing was the fact that she had chosen one of them to be her mate. How much of that was organic chemistry and how much of it was figurative chemistry, or perhaps neither? Perhaps it was just complete coincidence.

Morningstar studied Servantis' face briefly. "I would imagine she'd seek protection with the sorceress in her magical realm." He began, slowly. "It's impossible to get to unless you either knew the true name of the place or you're invited inside by the sorceress herself. Considering she hates me, I think that would be an impossible task. Unless…"

"Unless what, Morningstar? Get on with it. I don't have all day."

Morningstar narrowed his eyes behind his mask. "Recently, one Friedkin University made headlines after hiring a so-called professor of magical studies, Gwydion Hexter. I am certain that's this is the sorceress' uncle, the master magician Hex."

Servantis rolled his eyes. Magic and sorcery disinterested him. Such things were illogical and meaningless, merely used as excuses when real explanations were too difficult to grasp. For example, Gwendolyn had passed off her Anodite powers as "magic" when she was young. "What do you need in order to obtain this… magician?"

Morningstar took off his mask. Servantis averted his gaze. Without a constant external source of energy, Morningstar's appearance had withered away, like a living mummy. His skin was grey and leathery, pulled back tautly into his scalp. His yellow, decaying teeth looked too big for his skull. The white of his eyes were yellowish green and his blue irises were so pale they might as well be white. The small tuft of hair that was left on top of his skull was grey, coarse, and seemed ready to fall out of his scalp at the slightest tug. "He ran away like a coward and disappeared for a decade. I don't think he would be up for much of a fight. Especially if he doesn't see it coming." He took another mask out of one of his pockets, a blank metal mask in the shape of a human face. As soon as he placed it upon his nose, he transformed into a short, stocky boy with buckteeth, big round glasses, moderate acne problem, and strawberry-blonde jewfro. "I'll return in about 24 hours. If there's any issue I will contact Swift."

He exited through the same door he entered. Servantis said nothing. His initial plan was simple, involved a small number of children who were wards of the state, who had run away from home. It should have been completed in under a year, but he was a little carried away with his experiments. The children were not trained well enough. Then, the Omnitrix disappeared for a while. When it reappeared, he decided to stand back and observe rather than recommence his plan. He had planned to keep Levin around the Tennysons by planting those false memories inside Max Tennyson and Megan Levin's heads, but he hadn't accounted for teenage hormones to play a part in the dynamic of their relationships. He had spread stories about the Osmos system and its only inhabited planet, Osmos V, among the plumbers. He had wiped clean Aguilar's memories and conjured up entirely new ones to make himself believe that he was a supervillain from a fictional planet. That term he coined, Osmosian, was something he'd used for any humans who have mutated to have superpowers. Kevin Levin, Michael Morningstar, Cooper Daniels… he should have gotten to Agent Daniels. He could have perfected his equipment. But his brain was too mechanical; it was too difficult to enter his head without force.

Servantis turned back toward the monitor. He had just missed the sight of Kai Green leaving the Tennyson-Levin residence.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

 **The Osmosians**

Kevin was feeling somewhat relieved after his interaction with Kai. He had a plan. Gwendolyn would come back when it's safe, he just knew it. He had just gotten out of the shower when something—or someone—broke through the windows of the living room. Not wanting to face a potential assailant in the nude, he quickly dried himself and forcibly pulled a pair of fresh but oil-stained jeans up to his waist. He was considering putting on his boots when he heard loud stomps outside the bedroom and a semi-familiar roar.

"I've found you, Hatchling! Come out, come out wherever you are!"

Aggregor. Kevin wasted no time; he absorbed the metal post of his bed and armored himself up with the material before jumping out of the door to face the Osmosian villain. Kevin hated Aggregor as more than just a villain—he was a reminder of what Kevin could become, what Kevin had been, if he wasn't careful with his powers. "You came at the right time, Old Man. I was just looking for a good fight."

"Always with the talk, but never the walk." Aggregor replied. He pointed his spear at Kevin, who ran straight at the dark-haired man, ducking as a blast of red energy came out of the tip of the spear. Kevin tackled Aggregor to the ground, the two tumbling across the floor, knocking out furniture like bowling pins.

Aggregor punched Kevin in the face with his bare hand, before hopping onto the coffee table, breaking it in half.

"Fuck you, the furniture's new!" Kevin roared, forming two blades with his arms as he charged at Aggregor again. Aggregor blocked Kevin's attack with his spear, jumping across the room and knocking a large ugly vase, gift from one of Natalie's relatives. It shattered onto the floor in hundreds of pieces and Kevin was silently thankful. Kevin swept low, causing the older man to fall on his back. He had Aggregor pinned, landing blow after blow in the villain's face, but Aggregor knocked Kevin's side with the blunt end of his spear.

Kevin groaned in pain, but used this moment to pry the spear out of his opponent's hand and threw it across the room. He pressed his knee into the older man's chest, making it difficult for him to breathe. Aggregor chortled in between gasping for breath. "Are you… going to… kill me… now?"

"Not really my style," Kevin growled. "I do want you to tell me why you're going after me now, after all these years."

Aggregor's grin became wider. "Because… you… need to… remember."

"What?"

Aggregor raised a hand. Red electric sparks extended themselves from the tip of his fingers to Kevin's temple. The younger Osmosian doubled over in a mixture of pain and shock. Memories came flooding back, memories he didn't even remember he had. Flashes of names and faces appeared in the eyes of his mind, blinding his sight. He could feel Aggregor slithering away from underneath him, could hear his movements just a few feet away. "There's more where that came from, boy." He chuckled. "I guess now you know. I'm human, just like you."

When Kai arrived back at the base, the whole building was in chaos. With many of the senior agents going missing, the earth base had to make do with rookies. Kai watched as many ran amok with their Proto-blasters facing the wrong way, or with the safety still on, or with the ammo cartridge completely forgotten. Torn between the desire to reprimand them and the need to find out what was happening, Kai drew her weapon—an ancient sword she had uncovered during one of her archaeological digs—and followed the uncoordinated stream of rookies into the meeting room.

Two main battles were occurring, with the occasional "help" from the rookies. Blonko and Shar were up against their former teacher, the now-mutated Kundo, in a rather impressive combination of Revonnah and earth martial arts combat. Ben, as Fourarms, was engaged in a fight with a gigantic arachnid-like creature, while Max and Wes aimed their Proto-blasters at it, waiting for the right time to shoot. Cooper was off to the side, working on the security system.

"Out of my way!" Kai pushed two of the rookies aside as she leapt into the center of the room, swinging her sword around. She sliced one of the arachnid's legs, allowing Ben to push it against the wall, exposing its sensitive underbelly. Max and Wes immediately shot at the creature, immediately subduing it. As the arachnid—Kai recognized it as a Terroranchula—fell to the floor, she and Ben moved on to the next fight. The four of them circled Kundo, Ben transforming into Kickin' Hawk as he took the stance.

The five of them were engaged in a battle for what seemed like forever. Kai was the first to go down, having had her sword knocked out of her hand and receiving a sharp blow to her chest. Ben was next, having been thrown across the room with a loud squawk. Finally, Blonko and Shar took the chance to attack simultaneously, one going for Kundo's head and the other, his belly. Two metal claws descended from the ceiling, gripping the now-unconscious bodies of the perpetrators.

"What the hell happened?" Kai asked, as Ben picked her up gently.

Cooper walked toward them, not taking his eyes off the metal claws and their prisoners. "I don't know how they managed to get in," He said. "But they did, and they wrecked the entire room." He extended a hand to emphasize his point. Pieces of state-of-the-art furniture and technology scattered around the room, monitors cracked and chairs broken in half.

Rook Shar approached them, followed by her brother. "That felt more like a distraction than a real fight," She remarked. "They were more interested in wrecking our stuff than us."

Ben groaned and massaged the back of his head. "Speak for yourself," He said. "I feel pretty wrecked."

Kai rolled her eyes while Blonko gave him a sympathetic grin. "Grandpa, Max. are you guys okay?"

Wes and Max joined the group, blasters still in hand. "Fine," Max replied. He then turned to the rookies, who were still standing around the room, unsure what to do with themselves. "You're all good to go, make sure you visit the infirmary if you're hurt!" He ordered, and they dispersed.

Wes sighed. "What a nightmare," He said, with a chagrin. "And of course, that so-called proctor is nowhere to be found."

The group looked at each other in silence. They knew exactly who was responsible for this.

"Did you ever manage to crack those files at all?" Kai asked Cooper, grimly. She hugged herself while Ben wrapped his arm around her shoulder.

Cooper looked at her with sad eyes. "No, I can't keep up. The encryption changes before I can stop it, each time. You know what I did find, though? Since Kevin said whatever's contained in those files had something to do with him, I did a thorough background check on him and his entire family." He turned toward Max. "Devin Levin doesn't exist. There are no records of him in the Plumber database anywhere, or on any earth database. I also did some research on Osmos V, since I was curious. How come nobody's ever come looking for Kevin? Surely his father would have some relatives there who are aware of Kevin's existence. No, because there is no Osmos V and there is no such thing as the Osmos System."

Max frowned. Something was tugging at his gut. He tried to remember, but suddenly the face of the person he thought he knew was replaced by the face of another. In every one of his "adventures" with Devin, he was either alone, or accompanied by… Phil Billings.

Who had reverted to his human form, groaning, still within the grasp of the metal claw. He let out a sinister chuckle that turned into a cough. "You kids finally figured out something useful." He coughed and spat some more. "But you're a little too late now. Your annoying little girl is gone and Kevin belongs to us."

"And who would 'us' be?" Asked Ben.

"Why, you'll find out." Billings grimaced. He felt around for a button on the sleeve of his armor. In the blink of an eye, both Billings and Kundo disappeared from sight. The seven people on the ground gaped and held their breath.

"There's more," Cooper said, quietly. Six pairs of eyes glanced toward him. "Kevin's recorded time in Incarcercon only lasted six months, but he didn't return to earth until after his thirteenth birthday. According to Argit, they spent the whole year before that traveling around the galaxy, stowing away on random alien ships, but that still left a whole year unaccounted for. I looked into Pierce, Helen, Manny, and Alan's files, and it turns out each of them has a whole year gap. The same year as Kevin's."

Kai frowned. Ben's eyes widened. "What are you saying?" He asked.

Cooper lowered his gaze. "Whatever Servantis did with Kevin, the four of them were involved, too." He paused, then added. "Voluntarily, or not."

Ben gripped his temple. "Gwendolyn told us all this, didn't she? Before Paradox took her."

"We still don't know if it was Paradox who took her."

"It was him." Ben insisted. "I just don't understand why he hasn't come back to explain anything. He's usually pretty open with me."

Kai smacked him lightly on the upper arm. "Not everything is about you, Hero." Ben gave her an annoyed look. "Look, when I spoke to Kevin earlier, it seemed like he has this sort of… understanding of what's going on. He says we shouldn't get in his way."

Shar, who had been quiet thus far, cocked her head to the side. "How much do we trust Kevin now, knowing this information?" Blonko simply looked at his sister gravely, while Ben took a deep breath and squared his chest.

"I trust Kevin with my life." He declared. "Maybe Gwendolyn left him some sort of a message. Maybe he gained his memory back. Either way, if he's got a plan, then we'll let him go through with it." Kevin Levin was brash, impatient, and had tendencies to be violent, but throughout the years he had also shown good insight and brilliance in executing plans. Ben was still a little worried about him being without Gwendolyn by his side, but he was a grown man; he could handle himself. Right?


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

 **The Rooters**

 _"_ _Try it again." The deep voice commanded. Twelve-year-old Kevin Levin took a deep breath and closed his mismatched alien eyes, picturing his anger as an oncoming train that was coming to a stop. Images and words nagged at his mind, but he pushed them onto the rails. The train slowed to a stop, and when he opened his eyes again, he felt a weight being lifted off his shoulders—literally. He brought his hands to his face; there were only two of them this time, and they were the color and the shape of pale, skinny arms, human in every way. He looked up at his mentor, the old and wise Kwarrel, who was beaming at him. "You did it, Kid. You're ready."_

 _Around him, four faces looked up at him with admiration. He recognized them to be Argit, the tiny little hedgehog-like alien, Festus, the young hot-headed Pyronite, Speedy, the juvenile Kineceleran, and Tarchon, the uncharacteristically skinny but devious Tetramand. "Does this mean we get to go now?" Speedy asked, enthusiastically. Kwarrel nodded and lowered his voice._

 _"_ _Tonight. Keep your voices down and act normal." Kwarrel stood up, just as one of the guards approached them._

 _"_ _Cool magic trick, Old Man. Get your young ones to get back to work, now." The grumpy, green-skinned guard he recognized as Morgg narrowed his eyes at the group. Festus glared at him menacingly, but Tarchon pushed the molten lava alien away._

 _"_ _Come on," He said. Speedy wheeled himself back into the mines while Argit trailed behind them. It was always a hard day's work at Incarcercon—they had to dig all day and load the mine carts with the sparkly blue rocks. It was harder for the adults, who had to fill up at least three wagons by the end of the day (the kids only had to fill up one each) but they received pretty much the same punishments for failing to meet the requirements. Lashings, no food, or no water. Kwarrel and his young proteges completed their duties without trouble, however, and that night they got to enjoy their meager dinner._

 _That was when a riot broke out._

 _"_ _Let's go," Kwarrel grabbed Kevin by the hand while Tarchon grabbed Argit and put the little hedgehog-like creature on his shoulder. Speedy and Festus followed behind, keeping a lookout for anyone who might be following them. Kwarrel led them to a dead end of a corridor, but he pried a layer of steel from its spot and revealed an exit tunnel. He let the kids walk in front of him before replacing the steel blocking the entrance._

 _They must have walked halfway across when two figures halted them. Morgg raised his blaster and shot Kwarrel straight between the eyes. Kevin shrieked, but the prison guard held him in place. "Here's the boy," He said to the other figure, a lanky, pale man in a white lab coat. "Would you like me to eliminate his friends?"_

 _The pale man licked his lips and gave Kevin a menacing smile. "No… this is perfect." He used a laser trap and herded them like cattle into a large space station-like structure just outside of Incarcercon. Once inside, he separated Kevin from the aliens, leading them to a lab-like section packed with various alien life forms living inside transparent cells, like lab mice. A lady with medium complexion and cold brown eyes took Kevin to a separate wing that resembled a five-star hotel, with a high-tech entertainment room peppered with bean bags, luxurious bedrooms with built-in closet and private bathrooms, and a kitchen fitted with refrigerators full of candy, snacks, and soda._

 _Kevin was in awe as three other children came up to greet him._

 _"_ _Tag! You're it!' Shrieked a tiny girl with short, black hair and twinkling blue eyes as she tapped Kevin on the shoulder. She ran around the room before hiding behind her brother's back, a tall, brown-skinned, dark-haired boy who introduced themselves as Pierce and Helen, respectively. There was also an angry-looking African-American boy there with them, who sized Kevin up upon meeting him._

 _"_ _Manny," He introduced himself, gruffly. They explained to him that the nice man would give them anything they asked for, as long as they helped him._

 _Children could be so dumb._

Kevin woke up with a start. He was lying on his back on one of the luxurious beds he'd seen in his dream. Except it wasn't a dream—it was a memory. He gasped for air as he stood up, ready to attack, but found himself completely alone. He looked around the room. It was still his old room—it was clean but otherwise untouched. There was a photograph of himself and Ben as young boys, eleven and ten years old, in the middle of a fight, unaware of any onlookers. There was another photo of them, also in the middle of a fight, but instead of human, Kevin was an amalgam of ten different alien species—the ones he had absorbed from the Omnitrix. A lock with a broken chain was lying on the bedside table, the numbers "11" carved onto it. Kevin sank back onto the mattress and pressed his palms against his head as more memories filled his head.

 _The next week, they were joined by another young, confused, African-American boy with a short afro named Alan. That was when the experiments started. Servantis did it on himself, first—he had fastened both himself, Kevin, and an unnamed Cerebrocrustacean to a device that, in his words, "amplified Kevin's ability to store latent energy and allowed him to transfer that energy to another being." It was successful—Servantis, once upon a time a pale, lanky man with distasteful goatee and a strangely long head, was now a red-skinned humanoid with beady eyes and a crab-like shell on his cranium. The Cerebrocrustacean didn't survive._

 _Argit was one of the few alien survivors of the process, having had his powers transferred to Pierce. Tarchon survived, but only barely. Speedy never made it out of the experiment room and the only thing left of Festus was a small pile of charcoal and ash. Servantis had instilled in their minds that the aliens used in the experiment were lower-life forms; criminals, delinquents, those cast out by society and left to be forgotten. Kevin couldn't care less, anyway. He was getting everything he could have ever dreamed of. The only catch? He would have to end Ben Tennyson for good._

 _Not right away. Not in the way that he had been trying, in his erratic, bloodthirsty ways. No. This time, it would be careful and systematic, with the help of his own team. And he would be doing it for the good of the universe, because the Omnitrix, at the hand of young Benji, was a storm to end all storms. And Servantis had chosen Kevin to stop that_.

"Fucking sick bastard! Come out and face me!" He yelled at no one in particular, but there was nothing. He felt a sense of violation inside his own head, as if his skull had been broken into and its contents leaked out. His breath was caught in his throat when the image of a pair of bright green eyes came to his mind.

 _"_ _The next time you meet the Tennysons, you will treat them as friends." Servantis had told him. "Keep an eye on them, in case the boy chose to utilize the Omnitrix once more. If he does, only you can defeat him."_

Kevin must have taken it to heart, because despite not being able to recall the exact words until this moment, those thoughts played at the back of his head and bubbled to the surface whenever he was particularly overwhelmed. Like when he was Ultimate Kevin. His association with the Plumbers ended at Proctor Servantis—Devin Levin didn't exist, and he remembered it now. Megan had him at nineteen. She had run away to New York, found a job as a waitress in a diner, dated a series of deadbeats until she met Harvey Hackett, who was nearly ten years her senior. Kevin had always imagined his biological father to be some kind of a hero, someone who had to step away from his family in order to save the world. Instead, he got no-nonsense Harvey, who was not afraid to put Kevin down for what he was; a petulant child who threw a lot of tantrums.

Then he saw Gwendolyn's face in the eye of his mind, and his heart skipped a beat. There was no question about it; he was in love with her, she was in love with him. Servantis could not have manipulated that. But if she had found out… if she had thought otherwise…

Kevin shook his head. No. Gwendolyn never gave up on him. He was not going to give up on her, either.

There was a knock at his door.

"Who's there?" He jumped up and readied himself for a fight, but instead of Servantis or one of his cronies, Helen Wheels were standing in front of him, clad in black leather.

"Kevin, you're awake!" She stepped forward and hugged him tightly. "We're so happy you're here. Welcome back to the Rooters, Kevin. We need you to lead us."

Hope watched intently as figures of her two least favorite people in the world emerged from the shadows. Michael Morningstar had abducted her uncle, the magician Hex, from his new position as a professor of magical studies in some Ivy League university. Now he walked through the halls of the Rooters' base with the magician slumped over his shoulder, one hand pressed to the side of his neck, feeding on his energy. Morningstar had no intention to keep the magician around; after he revealed what he needed to know, he was going to drain the magician dry.

Hope held her breath. She drummed on the side of the basin with her long fingernails, impatient and annoyed at the fact. She should have killed both of them ten years ago, when Gwendolyn and her friends freed her from Morningstar's hold. No doubt, her uncle would tell him where to find her, and by association, Gwendolyn. She was so close to having Gwendolyn for herself—she was not going to give her up, not to her stupid husband, and definitely _not_ to Michael Morningstar.

Michael reached an empty cell and dropped Hex onto the floor. His hands and feet were bound tightly, but he was not gagged. Michael retracted the leech-like feeder from the magician's neck and sat down across the room from him. "Wake up, old man." He commanded.

Hex's tattooed eyelids fluttered open. "Wha… what? Where am I? YOU!"

Morningstar laughed humorlessly. "Yes, me. I'm so glad you remembered me."

Hex gritted his teeth. "What more do you want from me, boy?" He grunted.

"Your niece's magical kingdom. What is its name?"

It was Hex's turn to chuckle grimly. "You wish to know the true name of Ledgerdomain? Well, that alone isn't enough. You will need an invitation from Charmcaster to enter. And as I recall you pissed her off pretty badly."

"So did you, you old fart." Morningstar replied, harshly. "Just tell me what it is and we both can go about our business."

That was when Hope made a decision. With a snap of her fingers, she appeared in the room with Hex and Morningstar. Before the two men could react, she drew up a symbol on their foreheads, causing them to be frozen in place. She smiled coldly at her uncle, studying his slowly-fading face tattoo. His formerly wild hair was now styled in immaculate cornrows and put together neatly in bun on the back of his head. He had traded in his blood-red cloak and bare footedness for a pinstripe suit and a pair of wingtips. He looked old and tired and weak. She would have felt sorry for him, if she didn't still have his angry voice echoing in her head, criticizing her every move. "I wish I could say you tried hard," She whispered. "But you didn't try at all. You were so ready to discard me, to throw me away like garbage. You betrayed my father. You betrayed my mother. I will never forgive you." She traced the lines of his face with the tip of her fingers. She whispered a spell, which caused him to go limp. She held his mana in her hand, toying with it before throwing it against the wall. It exploded in glowing letters that covered nearly the whole wall.

"GWENDOLYN TENNYSON IS DEAD."

She turned toward Morningstar. "You're coming with me." She gripped him by the collar and snapped her fingers once more, sending them to where she was standing before, back in her castle. She gave Morningstar a meaningful smile. "I think… I think it'll be fun to give you a taste of your own medicine. You can be our slave. But of course, I need to make some adjustments."

Still frozen in place, Michael's eyes bulged as Hope tore his pants off of him.

Kevin stared incredulously at the writing on the wall. What they said to him was true. Morningstar was gone. Hex's dead body was sprawled on the floor of the cell. And the glowing message, written in what Kevin recognized as mana. This was the work of someone who had magic on their side, and there was only one person he could think of that could be responsible.

"Charmcaster," He muttered under his breath. It had been just over twenty-four hours since he fought Aggregor, since the first batch of the memories flooded over him. He was still trying to figure out what to do, and now—this? He did not want to believe it, but even Servantis seemed adequately surprised.

Kevin backed out of the cell and leaned against the cold metal wall. He was exhausted. His plan had worked so far; he was on the inside, he finally knew what was happening, no one was trying to kill him, and if Tennyson was on his tail, he hadn't blown his cover; but he had no idea what was supposed to happen next. Servantis wanted him to join willingly, which was why he had taken his distance from Kevin since he was brought there, instead having the amalgams (Helen, Manny, and Alan) escort him around. He was still hoping for a message—something, anything—from his wife. And yet here it was, a message that she was dead.

"I'm sorry, man." Alan came up to him and patted his shoulder. "Gwendolyn was a nice girl. Good thing is, now you can focus on the task at hand."

"Yeah, man." Manny patted his other shoulder. "Think of it as a way of avenging her. She did get caught up in all this, thanks to Tennyson."

Helen nodded. "We're avenging my brother, too. It was Ben's fault that our identities became public knowledge. It was his fault that those knights hunted down Pierce and killed him."

Kevin closed his eyes and opened them again. "What exactly is our task?"

Manny smiled knowingly. "Same as before. Destroy Ben Tennyson."

"But before that," Helen interjected. "Two of our friends need your help. Julie and Elliot." She took Kevin's hand gently and guided him toward the lab. "Only you can help, Kevin."


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

 **The Sorceresses**

Gwendolyn never knew what Hope did in her private study. She now spent most of her days meditating, communicating with the fetus growing inside her womb. It was a girl, healthy, and very obviously had inherited her father's abilities. Gwendolyn was glad that she had used the protective charm. Despite being in a world where mana was freely flowing, she would have been weakened significantly. The rest of her days was spent reading, taking walks around the castle, and contemplating whether or not she should reach out to her cousin or her husband.

Her due date was coming up and Gwendolyn had never missed anyone as much as she missed Kevin at this point in time. It wasn't just his presence, the feeling of safety she felt when she was with him, or the way he always made her laugh even when she didn't want to. Her hormones were raging and she was craving his touch, his body, the dance they had perfected with one another. Gwendolyn glanced around the room. Nobody was there. The door was closed.

She laid on her back, exhaling as she spread her legs slightly. One hand snaked between her thighs while the other caressed her swollen tummy. She shivered when she felt her own wetness. She imagined that her fingers were Kevin's, and that they weren't fingers but his mouth, trailing kisses along the lips of her vagina before diving in for her sweet nectar. Her engorged breasts were far too tender to be toyed with, but she imagined him staring at them with lust in his eyes, it didn't take her long to reach her first climax; she was so wet and so ready. Gwendolyn arched her back slightly and curled her toes as she moaned breathily into the empty air.

She stopped after her third climax. Four of her five fingers were inside her opening now, and she figured it was a good time to stop. She hopped off the bed to wash her hands. She studied her face. She looked the same as ever, a little paler, her hair was almost back to its length before she had it cut off, down to her shoulders. She wondered what her baby would look like. Would she have Gwendolyn's emerald eyes? Or Kevin's obsidian ones? Would she have black hair, red hair, brown hair? Would she have Gwendolyn's soft features, or Kevin's strong jawline? She had also been thinking of names. Catherine, Natalie, Verdona… perhaps something else entirely?

Hope barged into her chamber, snapping her out of her reverie. "Come with me," The silver-haired girl commanded, her tone urgent.

"Why, what's going on?" Gwendolyn asked.

Hope took her hand. "Just come with me!"

They crossed the castle and descended down a staircase to a part of the castle Gwendolyn had never explored before. Hope told her that it was the golems' quarters. And that might be partially true—large living statues with glowing characters along their limbs and back kneeled as the two sorceresses walked past. However, the older girl led Gwendolyn to a dark, stone corridor with heavy iron gates barricading the entrance. The dungeons.

Gwendolyn raised her eyebrow at Hope, but the silver-haired girl gave her an almost manic smile, like a jungle cat who was extremely pleased with her hunt. With a flick of her wrist, the iron gate opened, revealing a winding hallway with a dark silhouette of a person at the end of it.

"What is this, Hope?" Gwendolyn was starting to feel uneasy. She had never fooled herself into thinking that Hope was anything but dangerous, but she knew that Hope wanted to redeem herself in Gwendolyn's eyes, and so she had given the sorceress a chance. But as they walked through the hallway, Gwendolyn could hear the figure sobbing in pain, and all she wanted to do was turn back and run into her room.

"We don't need to be afraid of him anymore." Hope said, breathily. Her violet irises were glowing with victory, her smile nearly cut her face in half.

 _Him?_ Gwendolyn whispered an illuminating spell, which lit up the entire dungeon. Her eyes widened as she realized the sobbing figure at the end of the corridor was none other than Michael Morningstar.

Naked, save for the cloth around his loins, which was stained with blood. A blindfold covered his eyes, a trail of tears and blood staining his cheeks. He swung his shoulders around, and Gwendolyn realized that his arms had been cut off at the elbows. She fell to her knees, a feeling of nausea washing over her. "Hope," She whispered, in between retching. "What did you do?"

Hope giggled like a schoolgirl, seemingly oblivious to Gwendolyn's current state. "Oh, don't you worry! He'll be fine. Once I fitted these stone arms on him, he'll be just like my other golems. Except, you know, nicer to look at." She took out a pair of stone arms, perfectly human-sized, from her leather pouch.

Gwendolyn picked herself up, covering her mouth and averting her gaze. She hated Michael Morningstar, who had used her and betrayed her when she was only fifteen. But what Hope had done to him was not something she would wish upon anyone. Hope pulled Michael up to a standing position, briefly checking under his loincloth and blindfold. Gwendolyn could only assume that she had done something to his genitals—castrated him, perhaps—and that she had blinded him.

"Well, your wounds are healing quite nicely," Hope remarked. She brought one of the stone arms to fit one of his stumps and whispered a binding spell. The stone and the flesh seemed to grow around each other, atoms embracing, creating an unbreakable bond. She repeated the process with the other arm. Then, she removed his blindfold, and Gwendolyn realized that Hope had not only blinded him—she had completely removed his eyes.

She felt another wave of nausea washing over her.

Hope took a pair of enchanted jewels out of her pouch and placed them inside Michael's empty eye sockets, whispering the same binding spell she used on his arms. Hope called out for two of her golems and they came running straight for them. "Clean him. Feed him, but not too much. Have him ready to serve us by dinnertime." She turned toward Gwendolyn, picked the heavily pregnant girl off of the floor, and dragged her back to her chambers. "I thought you'd be happy," She hissed.

"Hope… what… what exactly are you doing to him?"

"What he deserves," Hope replied, defensively. "Took his eyes so he will never gaze upon our faces again. Cut off that tiny excuse of a penis he used to violate us. Most importantly, I got rid of his leeches. They live inside his arms, you know?"

Gwendolyn knew. She had seen them, had felt the effects they had when they enclosed the tiny round mandibles upon her skin. But this… this went far beyond what he deserved. "Why didn't you just… kill him?" She was surprised that the words came out of her own mouth, but death would be far more merciful than the torture Hope had unleashed upon him.

Hope laughed mirthlessly. "As if!" She exclaimed. "Don't you think this is fitting? After all he's done to you. To me, Gwendolyn. If you want to forgive him, that's fine. You've always been weak that way. But when he was torturing me, when he had his hands on me… he was thinking of you the whole time. I meant _nothing_ to him, Gwendolyn. At least this way I've proven to him what I'm capable of."

Gwendolyn closed her eyes. It was her fault that Hope had fallen into his hands in the first place. He'd had her captured as both a companion and a source of energy. After she escaped with Kevin, Hex decided to give up Hope to replace her until they captured her again. Which did not happen—at the time, they were teaming up with Vilgax, and the Chimera Sui Generis warlord had lost to Ben. So Hex had run and Michael was incarcerated. And the thought of Michael had kept Gwendolyn awake at night, nearly turned her into somebody she didn't like, but she fought it. She signed up for therapy, perfected her meditation technique, busied herself with fighting aliens, school, family… and Kevin.

"Hope, can I ask you one thing?" Gwendolyn sat down on her bed, staring at her own sore feet.

"Sure," Hope replied. She knew what Gwendolyn was about to ask before the redhead opened her mouth.

"What is happening on earth?" She took a shallow breath. "I've trusted you when you said you'd tell me when it's safe. I agreed with you about not looking into it myself because I knew that if Ben or Kevin were in danger I'd do something stupid and jump right back into it. Are Kevin and Ben taking care of Servantis? How did you manage to get your hands on Michael?"

Hope raised her eyebrows. "That is a lot more than just one thing, Gwendolyn."

"Hope, come on." Gwendolyn was starting to feel sick again. Hope extended her hand toward Gwendolyn's face, gently tracing her cheekbone.

"I just want you to love me," She whispered. "What would it take to make you love me?"

"What have you done?" Gwendolyn began to cry. How could she have been so blind? She had dismissed Hope's infatuation toward her as some sort of a coping mechanism, a residue of their childhood rivalry mixed in with a damsel-in-distress-saved-by-knight-in-shining-armor-type situation. Gwendolyn was the only person to show Hope some degree of respect and compassion in a long time; it was natural that Hope might have mistaken that attention for something else. But now she realized that she had given Hope a window to fulfill her own twisted desires.

"It doesn't matter," Hope shook her head, her beautiful silver hair falling around her face. "Forget about them, Gwendolyn. They will never love you like I do. They will never understand you like I do. Can't you see? We're perfect for each other. We're powerful. Independent. We seek a higher purpose than what is given to us. We can be the perfect parents to your baby."

"My baby still has both of her parents." Gwendolyn snapped. "Answer me. What have you done? What is happening to Kevin and Ben? Hope, please."

Hope never had a chance to reply. Within a split second, Gwendolyn fell onto the floor, clutching her belly in agony. A small puddle formed around her. Hope gasped. "I think your water just broke." She remarked.


End file.
